Last Alarm - An HOTD Fanfic
by firemanjim
Summary: An American Firefighter/Paramedic assigned to a private security team, gets caught up in the events leading to the Outbreak in Japan, and runs into a group of high school students and their school nurse along the way.
1. Foreword

FOREWORD

* * *

Anime has come a long way since the days my younger brother first introduced me to it. Back then,anime was known by only the most dedicated of anime fans who actually knew the origins of the animated features that we were introduced to in the early 1980's. For most of us, Gatchaman, Macross and others were not known by their true Japanese titles. The "cartoons" we grew up with that were somehow vastly different from the normal Hanna Barbera and Bugs Bunny features went by the name "Battle of the Planets" and "Robotech". Times have changed since those early days where anime was still very much an underground thing. I remember fondly the early days attending our first anime convention, Project AKON, in Dallas, Texas, were attendees could barely fill a screen room of 30 seats in front of a 27" TV watching episodes of "Maison Ikkoku" and "Ranma ½". Where cosplay was still very much in it's infancy, and the merchandise rooms were filled with a heck of a lot more anime merchandise and Japanese CD's than cosplay and steampunk stuff nowadays. Where we had celebrities like "James Hong , MST's "TV's Frank", and Bruce Campbell for everyone's inner nerd to gush over. And what AKON vet can forget "lights out" during Akon Seven?

Anime has certainly evolved, and has became so mainstream, we didn't even have to try to study Japanese anymore or rely on fan-subs. You could just walk into Best Buy and take what you want. Which was a good thing for most of us. The " Dubbing" vs. "Subbing" debate was a favorite argument back in those early days, but I still cringe when I remember "DOCO USA".

I still love anime, and every now and then, I'll slip into the dvd player an old "Patlabor", "Urusei Yatsura, or "Tenchi Muyo" dvd and think about the fun I had with my younger brother watching those "old school" animes.

Every once in awhile though, I'll find something new that sparks my interest, and it was after flipping through Netflix one day I came across "HOTD". I thought it was pretty interesting honestly. Not a bad story despite the gratuitous fanservice . Back when I was a teenager, there were dozens of movies where the kids were smarter than the adults and it was the kids that saved the day. Some of you might be familiar with such films as "The Goonies", "Red Dawn" and "The Rescue".

When I was a teenager stuck in horribly mundane classes in my old high school and praying that something adventurous would happen to break the monotony, I have to say, my imagination never took me so far as to imagining a world experiencing the life or death struggle of a zombie apocalypse.

I find this whole zombie thing pretty entertaining to say the least, especially since there are actually people who think it COULD happen.

It was after watching that anime and reading a few very well written fanfics on the series, that I wanted to write my own, based on the HOTD storyline.

Now, I'm not a writer by any stretch of the imagination. I wrote a story once as an English assignment taught by the school's volleyball coach and got a C- for my efforts. It was an over 200 PAGE, TWO WEEK effort. The reason I got a C- ? He didn't think it was an original story, and, he believed that I had copied it from another publication. I didn't know whether to be flattered or pissed off. Ah well, I passed the class and became a junior the following year. Thanks the hell a lot though, coach.

Anyway, it wasn't for a couple months after watching the anime that the bug for actually starting to put something down on paper about the HOTD series really bit me till one day on shift during a training session.

We were asked, what would we do to help a group of civilians during a major disaster if we were out on a search party and came across survivors and back up was not going to be around for hours? Of course, we were discussing earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural events and not a zombie apocalypse. But then, as I was watching the last couple of episodes of HOTD when I got home after a 24 hour shift, I began to think to myself about that same scenario we had discussed at work and wondering , "What would happen if I came upon a group of kids alone in the middle of a disaster with no one to help them?" After brushing off the whole thing as silly and childish, I let it go for a couple of months. But HOTD was still one of the better anime's I'd seen in a few years, and so after a while of debating the silliness of writing my own fanfic, I finally decided to give in. In writing this story, I wanted to base it on the subject and characters of the anime and manga, but like all fanfics, I wanted to make it unique, to make it my own. Then a thought occurred to me.

In 2002, I had decided to start writing a journal, where I started putting down some personal thoughts and experiences for my family to read about if for some reason I didn't return home.

I have to admit, there are some things you DON'T want people to know about our job. It'll make you sick, and no, I'm not being dramatic. Still, every single one of us in this world has an interesting life story to tell, and while I have a journal that's there to pass on to my family to read of some of my experiences if the worst should happen, I saw no harm in blending in a few of those experiences into this fanfic, to make it a little more interesting and yes, to make it definitely unique.

I mean really, how many firemen out there will admit to being a fan of anime in the first place much less write a fanfic about it, and then blend in their own experiences as well into the story?

Which, by the way, yes I really AM a firefighter. I have served as a Firefighter/Paramedic for 26 years now and I still love the job, although it is starting to take it's toll in some ways. I've always been proud to still be serving in the field, and hope I still can for a little while longer. While I am proud of the job I do and the things I've done and the people I've had the great privilege to serve with, I'd still prefer to remain anonymous . I'm not out for personal glory for one and for another, there are some things that are true about the reputation of firemen and police in that we find it essential NOT to let each other know too much about each other, particularly our likes, dislikes, and hobbies. Why you ask? Because they can become excellent fodder for practical jokes that we firemen have become legendary for. (And no, I'm not kidding. "Ladder 49" barely scratched the surface on our love for practical jokes.)

Anyway, another reason I decided to write a fanfic is because after the truck and equipment checks are done, after all the training and station duties are finished, 24 hours is still a long time to be on duty before the next change of shift. It's remarkable to me just how quickly time passed by writing this story in between station duties and running calls. Still, this writing stuff is HARD, so it's still taking me a lot longer than I thought to start posting this stuff for you to read.

I had wanted to make a unique story, but the hard part is making a GOOD story where the reader doesn't think to himself "My, what an incredible waste of time that was".

I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon, but still, I wanted to make the story interesting, appealing, realistic and entertaining, and not just throw an enormous amount of literary refuse on the screen.

I also wanted, as I wrote this story, to honor my brothers and sisters in Fire, Police, EMS, and the Military with this story. There have been a lot of books written about us, and some of us in Rescue, Police, and the Military, have even written books about our own experiences that made excellent reading and obviously don't include zombies.

So I figured we were due a zombie version. LOL.

* * *

In this story, I have done some research to try to get things right about the guys that serve, but not being a cop or military, I've had to rely heavily on friends who are Police and Military to fill in the gaps. Research books, Wikipedia and the History Channel have certainly been a big help. Just the same, this is a fanfic written by a tired firefighter, killing time on a 24 hour shift, with no clue on what he was doing, so don't expect a literary masterpiece. But I do hope you have as much fun reading this story as I did in writing it.

Again, I am a Firefighter/Paramedic, and not Police or Military, although I have learned quite a few things from my friends in Police and SWAT and I have a few friends that have served in the Military and a couple in Special Operations who have explained a few things for the sake of accuracy, but they don't call them "The Silent Professionals" for nothing. And yes I actually do own the weapons my character uses in this story and they are all REAL, except for the Mk 18 carbine. My OC uses military weapons and some tactics, but again, I am NOT Military, so there will be NO claims of former service by me here. Stolen Valor is an ugly thing, and I won't be a part of it. I have a special place in my heart for the guys in the SEAL Teams, and everyone in Special Operations, so while in this fanfic my character has to do some things that are associated with the tactics and techniques of the guys in the military, you won't find me saying that I AM Military. I'm quite proud enough of my own accomplishments to try to steal someone else's. I never wore a badge I didn't earn, and I never called myself something I wasn't.

However, you can hardly expect to live through a zombie apocalypse by fighting with axes and fire hoses, so yes, my character does use weapons which are the ones I describe in the story that I really do own, except for the Mark 18 carbine (That's on back order, seriously. I can't wait for this whole ban thing to be over). And because there are Fire/Medics who serve on SWAT teams and serve in military bases as firefighters, yes, I used that as a basis for my character's whole reason for being in Japan in the first place, but that part is obviously fictional.

This story is meant to be a fun story and to also, in a small part, honor those who go in harm's way for our fellowman. So all you guys in the Military, Police, Fire and EMS, this is dedicated to you, guys.

And this story is especially dedicated to my younger brother Eli, who is also a "brother" among our ranks as an EMT and Fire Cadet.

And again, please folks, try not to take my pathetic attempts at the literary arts too seriously or laugh too hard at all my mistakes. This is supposed to be in fun.

But I would like to hear what you think, especially if it's good. :P

So drop me a review if you don't mind. Thanks!

I do hope you enjoy the story.

* * *

Obviously I don't own HOTD or any of it's characters.


	2. Chapter 1- The Bridge

"When a man becomes a fireman his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished."

"What he does after that is all in the line of duty."

Chief of Department Edward Croker, FDNY 1899-1911

* * *

Chapter One

The Bridge

* * *

Date: Present Day

Time: 0430 90 minutes to change of shift

Geographic Location: Tokonosu City, Japan

Bridge Checkpoint, " Whiskey Outpost #31." Currently stationed by mix of surviving members of the 37th Regiment Third Infantry Division, 1st Tank Battalion, and 1st Logistical Division, J.S.D.F. manning two machine gun emplacements and supported by two Type 10 JGSDF Main Battle Tanks.

Midori-bashi, one of eight remaining bridges separating Tokonosu Commercial Shipyards currently classified as "SAFE AREA" from Metropolitan City of Tokonosu currently classified as "QUARANTINE ZONE."

Steel Truss Construction supported by Concrete Columns over Canal.

Four vehicle lanes and two pedestrian walkways.

Constructed in 1995, 333 Meters in length, 12 Meters in Height above River at Peak Water Level.

Current Status: CLOSED

* * *

For the hundredth time since he and his platoon had started their watch, Sgt. Major Seitaroh Sakaki stared at the luminous hands of his military issue wristwatch and rubbed his tired eyes. The long hours on watch were starting to take their toll, and Sakaki was extremely glad that this particular watch was almost over.

They were due at the end of this shift to be rotated out to the newly "liberated" Tokonosu International Airport, now the JSDF Command Center for this region of Japan for a much needed break, and it couldn't come soon enough in his opinion.

As he turned his attention back to the men and women in his charge, he allowed himself to relax a little. The relief platoon would be arriving within the next hour, and soon after that, they would have 48 hours free from this wretched duty.

Sakaki , like all of the men and women of the surviving members of Echo Platoon, was looking forward to a hot bath, hot food, clean BDU's, and, dare he hope, some kind of decent sleep that had eluded each and every one of them since this whole nightmare began.

"Sleep.'' Sakaki thought dryly. "I wonder if any of us will ever be able to sleep again".

It wasn't just the stress and fatigue of combat against an unspeakable horror that the Sgt. Major and his people had just barely survived, that had Sakaki and everyone else on edge. It was the uphill battle of remaining on constant alert against the crushing boredom of their current assignment that was sapping what remaining reserves of strength they had.

Guard duty has always been amongst one of the least desirable assignments in military service. It is boring, tedious duty. The human mind and body can only maintain a level of alertness for so long before the individual succumbs to fatigue and a state of complacency that starts to set in after lengthy time periods of inactivity. Tactics used to ward off fatigue from long hours of guard duty, including consuming buckets of strong coffee, walks around the perimeter, and shorter shifts are helpful, but often times are just not enough to maintain a focused level of alertness when the assignment becomes routine, unproductive, dull.

Boring.

Unfortunately, with the desperate shortage of manpower brought about from the the huge losses of personnel, food and equipment during the beginning days of the Outbreak. Shorter shifts, and relief rotations were becoming harder and harder to come by with each passing day. Currently, Sakaki and his people had to endure grueling, twelve hour shifts at a stretch, an agonizing assignment because of the depleted manpower.

A necessity that unfortunately, was pushing he and his people to their absolute limits.

Already, Sakaki had had to smack, ….er, make that TAP, the back of a few of the helmets of the people in his charge in an effort to keep everyone alert and focused on the mind numbing task at hand.

He really didn't blame them at all though. The long hours of guard duty, not to mention the combat fatigue from a war they had never imagined in all their lives had pushed everyone's nerves to their almost absolute limit, a fact he was desperately hoping that the young lieutenant would be able to convey to their superiors based safely on their new Command Center on the island based Tokonosu International Airport, who seemed to be truly oblivious of the state of their remaining forces on the Mainland.

* * *

Time: 0445

Still forty-five minutes before Lt. Kumagami and her people would arrive to relieve them and a still a full hour and fifteen minutes before they would actually be relieved, Sakaki sighed to himself.

All platoons arrived a little early to debrief and exchange pleasantries before the oncoming group would formally assume their watch, allowing the outgoing platoon to clean up, grab a meal, and hopefully grab some sleep in the nearby buildings set up as a forward barracks, fitful as that sleep would often turn out to be.

0600 was the traditional morning change of the guard in the military, which usually was first light in most time zones. Part of the reasoning behind that tactic, was to take advantage of the lull before the peak hours of activity in most military bases, and for those in the field, to relieve the tired, on duty sentries, and get a fresh set of eyes on guard duty before daybreak, the preferred time of attack that most enemy forces used traditionally throughout centuries of warfare,hoping to catch an opposing camp's sentries off guard during the peak point of fatigue after enduring a long, boring uneventful night of guard duty.

The infamous command "We attack at dawn," was uttered by many military commanders with much success by employing this simple, but effective tactic by taking full advantage of this weakness.

However, here on this particular battleground, and now within the past week and a half, the enemy the men and women of the J.G.S.D.F. faced didn't rely on surprise or military tactics of any kind.

The problem with this particular foe, was that this enemy just wouldn't stop coming.

* * *

Sakaki once again made his rounds amongst the men, making sure they were awake and alert, and offering them the encouraging thought that their relief was coming soon, of which every single one them was grateful for.

When he was done, with his rounds, Sakaki walked up to his lieutenant, who was leaning against one of the two, Type 10 battle tanks that were stationed behind the two .50 cal. machine gun nests that guarded the bridge. His head propped up by one hand, his elbow on the tank.

The footsteps of someone approaching, jarred the young officer from his stupor, and he straightened himself as Sakaki walked up.

Twenty-two year old Lt. Azuma Shinohara mentally cursed himself for nearly falling asleep in the presence of his men on his watch.

He couldn't be blamed for it however, of all the people in his group since the Outbreak had begun, Shinohara had received the least amount of sleep compared to everyone else. Still, he pushed himself hard to set a good example in front of everyone, even though his strength was fading fast.

Fresh out of the Academy barely six months prior to the Outbreak, his military career, indeed, his entire life, had been turned upside down as his own country, not to mention, the ENTIRE world had been plunged into a nightmare on one could ever have possibly imagined.

The normal, transitional training period that routinely went with a new officer and his new command, was abruptly ended by the Outbreak, which thrust the new Lt. and his new command, most of them fresh out of boot, from routine training duties, to frontline combat duty at a time when they were not even close to being combat effective.

The Outbreak had changed all that, and by the time anyone had the faintest idea of how grave the situation really was, the wave of death and destruction was already well on its way, and worse, there seemed to be no way of stopping it.

Most of Shinohara's fellow Academy grads as well as many seasoned, higher ranking officers, were killed along with their men in the first few days of the Outbreak, due to some idiots in Central Command ordering them to "assist" local authorities in what was thought to be a "routine crowd control" situation.

The folly of that decision was reversed too late, and as a result, when the higher ups finally realized how bad the situation really was, the situation had gone from "situation hostile" to as is commonly referred to among the "grunts" in the field, as TARFU (Things Are Really F_ckedUp" . and then to full blown, unadulterated FUBAR (F_cked Up Beyond All Recognition), when the supposed "crowd control" assignment quickly dissolved into fierce open combat, even hand-to-hand in some cases, against fleeing , panicked civilians whipped into a state of frenzy trying to escape the Infected.

And then right behind them, the waves upon waves of the Infected Ones, relentlessly attacking anyone in their path.

* * *

Battle line after battle line, roadblock after roadblock, man after man, all fell before what seemed to be an unending swarm of Infected. There was simply no way to contain the Contagion, which would suddenly spring up even from guarded locations thought to be "safe".

This was usually from the result of someone having been bitten by an Infected person, and then hiding their wounds from discovery until finally, to the horror and surprise of everyone who thought they were finally safe, succumbed to the infection, attacking and killing anyone within reach. Breakdowns in communication, equipment, and the Command structure, eventually led up to the total collapse of any form of control of the situation and ultimately, lapsed into complete and utter CHAOS.

Still, the Japanese are a resilient people, And through the strength, courage and stubborn resolve of the surviving JSDF's military commanders they were finally able to rally their men together and at last, make an effective stop of the slaughter, although they were nowhere near being able to turn the tide. But for now, the danger was somewhat being held at bay long enough for them to rest and regroup. But for now, the danger was being held somewhat at bay long enough for them to rest and regroup.

Still, the cost had been high.

Much too high.

* * *

When the dust had finally settled somewhat on the third day of the Outbreak, the huge number of losses was staggering.

The First Responders of Japan's Emergency Services, Police, Fire, and EMS had suffered the heaviest losses. Arriving first at the front lines of the disaster in all the cities that they served, most died at the scene, completely unaware of the danger they had raced towards.

The EMS crews and the firefighters stood no chance upon their arrival, unarmed save for fire axes and other hand tools, the rescuers were unable to defend themselves against the wave of Infected that quickly overwhelmed them.

Armed only with their five-shot police issue revolvers and ASP batons, the police fared little better, as many of them died heroically trying to save their friends and colleagues.

And of Japan's Ground Self Defense Forces that arrived afterwards, roughly only 46% of the JSDF Ground Forces were all that remained when the final tally was taken, and of those, most that survived were not even front line troops but, as most fighting men had named them in militaries around the world, REMF's (Rear Echelon Mother F_ckers )

They had only survived because their assignment had been in a rear control area, away from the actual fighting.

The situation for the country of Japan, not to mention the whole world, was desperate in the WORST possible sense of the word.

* * *

It had long been taught that a soldier was a combat infantryman first, and whatever official job classification he was designated was second. The Outbreak proved that to be true, as everyone, from logistics clerks to the lowly potato peeler, was now Priority One, a combat soldier, ready to fight at any given notice and unlike in the past where the old practice of keeping weapons locked away from view was exercised. Weapons were now to be worn at all times, ready for action, NO EXCEPTIONS.

Forward Operating Bases and the people that operated in them were a mix of all ranks and services which only added to the confusion as few were able to work in an environment that was not only hostile, but also in complete disarray.

Everyone was desperately trying to keep up with the now mandatory training in combat weapons systems, battle tactics, and deployments, as well as the seemingly endless evacuation of scores of survivors trying to escape what had once been their home.

No one was unaffected by the haphazard mix of rear echelon personnel along with front line combat soldiers, but under the current conditions, there was no room for complaints or changes in personnel. Everyone had to make do with what they had and that included the people each person had to fight alongside with whether they liked it or not.

Shinohara's group was not immune from the confusion either. When Shinohara lost two of his men in one particularly fierce battle, the replacements sent down from Command consisted of two women, one of them a former nurse's assistant turned medic, and the other a former logistics clerk now serving remarkably, as a machine gunner.

While the two women had proven themselves to be more than able to perform their duties under fire, and had earned the respect of the rest of the platoon, replacements for the combat weary soldiers, as could be expected, where slow in coming. There were plenty of volunteers eager to sign up and began fighting back the deadly horde that had driven them and their families from their homes and thus be able to make it possible to make their homeland safe again.

However, very few areas in Japan were unaffected by the Outbreak and those safe areas available that could even be considered as training grounds safe enough to train the new recruits that were not heavily infested by hordes of Infected in the first place, still were left with another problem. There were even fewer experienced LIVING instructors to train the new recruits.

By the fifth day of fighting however, enough areas of Japan were secured well enough to finally be able to contain the Infected, so that some sort of normal operations could be resumed.

One strategic location was Tokonosu City.

* * *

The city itself had been, before the Outbreak, a very prosperous city, both in the commercial and tourism industry. It seemed to be almost perfect in the way it was structured, and from a military standpoint, it most certainly was.

Built on the shores of the Sea of Japan, Tokonosu boasted one of the largest commercial shipyards in the nation that was currently now being used as a naval base. Even better, Tokonosu was a stone's throw from Tokonosu International Airport.

Called "The Floating Airport" since it was built on a nearby island, what had once been a busy commercial airport for commerce and tourism was now the main base for Air Operations in this region of Japan as well as a perfect place to set up the new Command Center for that area once it had finally been "sanitized" of all the infected.

Still, one of the main concerns beside Containment was logistics and in order to maintain an open supply line in and out of the Wharf Area, many of the bridges that criss-crossed the many canals of Tokonosu City, had been cleared of all bodies and vehicles that led into the area, and secured with checkpoints armed with soldiers manning machine gun nests and supported with armored vehicles, including tanks.

The city itself unfortunately, was officially declared lost, and the priority now was defending the base, and the supply line that was helping to feed and supply a horribly battered military force and a thoroughly devastated nation.

* * *

Shinohara cursed himself for his weakness in front of his men, and then, cursed his superiors, his luck, and the whole world in general for the situation that he and his men were in.

This assignment did little to ease his anger either. Midori Bashi (bridge), was a 500 meter long, four vehicle lane, concrete and steel Truss Construction bridge that had once been a bustling gateway to the wharf area.

Now it lay silent, empty, devoid of any life or movement whatsoever, and to add even more to the eeriness of the bridge, the changes in the weather out to sea and from the mountains inland caused a mist to continually form over the river ,covering over the bridge and surrounding area with a thick fog that decreasing visibility enough so that it almost felt to the men on watch over the bridge, as if something was hiding in the cover of the fog just waiting to snatch you away screaming into the darkness.

Even the light shining from the powerful lights mounted on the framework of the entrance of the bridge and stretching out towards the length of the bridge for thirty meters did little to improve visibility or morale. Between the bridge and the fog everyone was of the impression that this bridge was really some ghostly gateway into hell.

And indeed, in this case, it was true.

* * *

All vehicles that had been abandoned on the bridge in the ensuing panic had been bulldozed off to the opposing side, as a barrier to prevent the Infected from breaching the now locked and welded gates that closed off the bridge on the opposite entrance into the city.

Placed in front of the spot where Shinohara and his men now stood vigilant watch along with their machine guns and battle tanks, a barrier of three rows of concrete street dividers was set up into an uneven pattern along coils upon coils of razor wire strewn along what had once been the public walkways on the sides of the bridge to prevent anyone, or ANYTHING from approaching from anywhere else , but directly in front of the machine gunners in the unlikely event that a breach were to occur, with the dividers acting to slow down anyone, or again ANYTHING, long enough for the gunners to pick off without being overrun. It was a near perfect Kill Zone.

Unfortunately, any survivors within the Quarantine Zone, that is, still in the city, were doomed, as the barriers also prevented any but the strongest from climbing over the barricade on the city side in a desperate flight to safety.

This they were sadly witness to, as some survivors could still be heard on the opposite side begging for help that would not come. It was heartbreaking, and many of Shinohara's men had to be physically restrained from wanting to run to the other side and save what could possibly be a possible carrier of the Infection.

It was enough to drive a man insane.

Recently, what had really put their nerves to the test, was when in the middle of the night, a sudden scream would ring out from some unfortunate victim who had strayed too out long and too far into the city and had been unable to escape the grasp of the Infected.

In the past five days, however, there had been no activity seen in the city whatsoever. Only the howling of the wind through the dark, silent buildings on the other side and the sound of the river splashing against the concrete supports below filled the ears of the small band of soldiers .

* * *

Shinohara greeted his sergeant as he walked up.

"Sakaki-san, Osu." He said using the slang version of "Good Morning".

Shinohara was a good man, probably one of the better ones he served with, thought Sakaki. But still, he tended to be a little too laid back sometimes.

Sakaki was third generation military, his father a sergeant having served in the military during, but not directly involved in, the War the Americans fought in Vietnam. And his grandfather, also a sergeant as well who had served in the Imperial Army during the Pacific War.

Tough, courageous, but fair, Sgt. Sakaki was nonetheless highly respected by his superiors as well as those in his charge.

That doesn't mean that he didn't scare the hell out of them though.

"Lieutenant Shinohara, Ohayo gozaimasu." Sakaki replied in his usual serious tone.

How is everything"? Shinohara asked with a yawn.

"Everything and everyone's good, as well as can be expected. No visible activity on the bridge, all quiet, ready for our relief to come in." Sakaki said, looking towards the city.

"Great". Shinohara said looking back towards the sea. Shinohara was usually more conversational, but today, he was just too tired for too much conversation. Still, he didn't believe in allowing his mood to sour his relationship with his men, so he tried his best to be cordial.

Anyway, in less than two hours, they'd be able to stand down and prepare for a well - deserved rest on that so-called "floating "paradise". Getting some down time would do much for his body as well as his mood. He shook his head though at the irony of a thought that came to his mind suddenly.

Who would have ever thought that an airport would be considered a vacation spot?

* * *

The sudden sound of approaching vehicles disrupted his thoughts. With the unexpected presence of the vehicles piquing his curiousity, Shinohara and Sakaki walked from behind the machine gun positions and past the two silent tanks to greet the occupants of the two JGSDF Humvees that had pulled up. Shinohara was slightly puzzled to see the two vehicles arriving at their location so early.

Normally, the officer who had just arrived, Colonel Goto and his staff would always routinely check on the outposts to debrief the officers in charge on the latest developments and offer words of encouragement to the troops first thing after daybreak. But the colonel's arrival this early was much earlier than usual.

"Attention"! Sakaki barked as the colonel stepped out of his vehicle. All personnel, including Shinohara and Sakaki snapped to attention their hands raised in a sharp salute.

"Neh, Shinohara-kun, Sakaki-san. He continued. " How are you and your people faring"? He asked in his usual laid back, almost lethargic fashion, offering a handshake to each of them in greeting. First, to Shinohara and then to the old sergeant.

Sakaki returned the handshake and thought to himself. "Military discipline, sure isn't what it used to be, these two could be father and son, the way they act all the time".

Kiichi "Razor" Goto, was a career officer, but he had a trait that was most annoying to the officer elite of the JGSDF, of whose opinion of him Goto was completely unconcerned. Like Shinohara, he tended to be way too informal in the way he spoke to his junior officers, as well as also giving off the impression that he was completely unconcerned with with any military formality.

His persona was just a ruse however, that Goto used much to his advantage, to the befuddlement of his colleagues and superiors.

Those fooled by his seemingly unconcerned, almost lethargic personality would later quickly discover to their dismay, just exactly how manipulative and solid a tactician Goto really was, when during any given situation, Goto always seemed to be on top of things long before most of his fellow commanders even had an inkling as to what was happening.

The Outbreak had been one of those occasions. And as much as his fellow colleagues wished for some disciplinary action to be taken against him, no one could offer a solid enough case against him or deny his achievements at the height of the Outbreak.

Kiichi "Razor" Goto, was just too sharp.

* * *

Shinohara hesitated slightly waiting for Col. Goto's second-in-command to join them, and after saluting Col. Nagumo, he finally spoke, giving the Col. his usual report on the night's activities, or in this case, the lack thereof.

Also listening intently to Shinohara's report, Col. Shinobu Nagumo looked intently at the young man, her eyes scanning over the checkpoint, visualizing every detail and quickly glancing to the city beyond, shrouded in mist speaking very little.

Nagumo was the exact opposite of Goto in every way. Where his style of leadership seemed almost apathetic, Nagumo was a pure professional, highly competent, by-the-book officer, highly regarded by her peers, and to everyone, it seemed almost an insult to have her paired with Goto whose style of leadership was questionable at best.

Highly respected by Command and her peers, her fall from grace began with an almost inconceivable act that Nagumo fatefully made.

In a private ceremony,Col. Shinobu Nagumo had become Goto's wife.

* * *

The joining of the two was preposterous in the eyes of the officer elite, and while marriage to equally ranking officers was not frowned upon, serving together as commander and executive officer in the same group unit WAS.

The Outbreak made the separation of the two impossible, which was fortunate for them, and now with the depleted forces and shortage of manpower, restructuring of the military was paramount and the undeniable success of their dual leadership during the Outbreak convinced the powers-that-be, that there were other, more important things to focus on, than the controversial command of the couple.

Of course, all who knew Goto, surmised there was some sort of hold, of some kind, that he had to have pulled in order to keep the heat off.

As the usual pleasantries and casual conversation continued, all of them suddenly turned as their conversation was interrupted by the hurried approach of Corporal Shigeo Shiba running up towards them from the bridge. The lights mounted on the bridge clearly illuminating the fact that the young man was visibly alarmed.

Corporal Shiba halted in front of the party and snapping to attention, with his hand raised in a salute, he looked at the group of officers and sergeant Sakaki as if he wanted to cry.

"What is it Shige-san?" asked Shinohara, suddenly afraid of what news the corporal might be bringing them.

His worst fears unfortunately, were confirmed by the corporal's words.

The nightmare they knew could happen, finally had. Right at his front door.

"Lt. Shinohara", the young man said, the fear unmistakable in his voice.

" Private Izumi on the secondary machine gun reports, possible enemy contact on the bridge, approaching our position."

* * *

Author's Notes:

Whew, that was a handful. I apologize for the wait and the long back story. When I came up with the idea for this fanfic, I wanted to make it at least halfway decent, in the hopes everyone could enjoy it and not be bored to death. Truth is, I kinda rushed through writing the story a bit because I wanted to post this story finally because I had been promising a few people for a couple weeks now that I would. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

I re-wrote this first chapter twice before I finally typed it out and it was after page six that I decided to delete about one third of story, so there is less dialogue in this chapter than originally. Still, this is only the back story, about almost two weeks after the events in episode one of the series. I've got TEN chapters outlined for now, but there is easily over FORTY chapters to my fanfic, so bear with me, it gets BETTER.

For those of you who recognized the names of the Japanese SDF soldiers, you'll recognize the characters of one of my favorite animes was incorporated into the story. For those of you who don't recognize the names, I highly suggest checking out the anime PATLABOR. It's an awesome piece of "old school" anime.

I also tried to do some research into the normal military protocols, equipment and procedures, but, unless you've actually served in the military, it's hard to get it right, and it's really tough since I'm trying to describe the protocols and procedures of a foreign nation.

For instance,the call sign of the checkpoint Shinohara's group are on was a bit of a puzzle for me to name. In military operations, a call sign would be given to any location based on map grids and other information.

But in this case, instead of accuracy, I'm decided to listen to my inner nerd, and so the call sign for Midori-bashi bridge became "Whiskey Outpost 31", which is a nod to a couple of my favorite sci-fi movies, the fictional U.S. Science Station, "Outpost 31" from John Carpenters movie "THE THING" as well as "Whiskey Outpost" from the sci-fi flick "Starship Troopers".

Both of those fictional locations were sites of battles were the heroes of the films were isolated, alone, and outnumbered against overwhelming odds. Pretty much describing Shinohara's current situation. Well anyway, I hope the story came out good enough to enjoy at least little bit.

The following chapters really start to pick up the pace compared to this one, and yes, our teenage friends from the HOTD series will be in the next chapter.

But for now, I thought I'd leave you with a bit of a cliffhanger.

Thanks for reading this first chapter, I hope you enjoy it, and hopefully I'll have chapter three up in another week or so.

Thanks again! Firemanjim

* * *

To be continued till next time,…

"Shadows In The Mist"


	3. Chapter 2 - Shadows In The Mist

"The Last Alarm Ceremony is a traditional Final Tribute to a Firefighter who has given the ultimate sacrifice in the Line Of Duty.

The Ceremony begins by calling the deceased Firefighter's name and is followed by the ringing of the ceremonial fire bell.

The Last Alarm Ceremony represents the Firefighter's final Call To Duty. And it symbolizes that the Firefighter has returned Home.

* * *

Chapter Two

Shadows in the Mist

* * *

"Do you even see ANYTHING?" Whispered Nagumo, as she scanned the bridge, her eyes glued to the binoculars she held.

"Not a thing." Her husband replied. His eyes also glued to his field glasses.

They had all come rushing back to the front of the tanks behind the machine gun emplacements as soon as the terrified corporal had given his report. And by the time they had arrived, Sgt. Major Sakaki had already ordered everyone to arms, and as they arrived, everyone was already in position, rifles at the ready, but, as had been ordered by Central Command, with the safeties still "ON."

It was a safety rule, absurd to everyone in the field, but strictly directed by HQ after a few incidences of accidental discharging of weapons at shadows by jumpy recruits during the Outbreak.

Until the order was given by the lieutenant to take the safeties "OFF" and open fire, the rifles of the small band of JGSDF soldiers were to be kept pointing harmlessly forward until the danger presented itself.

A few minutes had passed since they had rushed to rejoin Shinohara's group, and since then, there had been no visible activity on the bridge. Shinohara had already since then, contacted HQ of possible enemy contact, and had them standing by on alert until it could be confirmed that there was a real security breach or not.

Once that call was made, his next call had been to Lt. Kumagami's group who had been alerted of the situation and would be shortly enroute to their position.

In the meantime, all of Shinohara's men, joined by Goto's entourage as well, stood by their weapons, ready to unleash Hell, at the first command to open fire. While Goto and Nagumo were the senior ranking officers, they chose not to interfere with Shinohara's command of his men.

Goto trusted this young lieutenant, and history had shown the many disasters that occurred when conflicting orders were given in the battlefield. So unless the young officer was in trouble, Goto and Nagumo wisely chose to observe and stay out of the way, until there assistance was needed.

It was a decision more junior officers and their men in other militaries around the world would have applauded.

All eyes were now completely focused on the center of the bridge, waiting for the first glimpse of the dreaded lurching figure that each one of them had become all too familiar with, to emerge menacingly from the thick early morning mist. Their ears strained for the slightest sound, especially that awful moaning that they had all heard, all too frequently.

As of yet, there had been no movement whatsoever visible on the bridge ever since the young female private's first sighting that had been reported about 10 minutes earlier.

And the only sound to their ears since then, was the splash of the river against the bridge's concrete supports below them.

* * *

"Perhaps it was just a trick of the light"? Nagumo said, the doubt she had about the private's statement starting to be reinforced with each passing minute. There had been false reports up and down the line almost daily, most from some battle weary soldier succumbing to stress and fatigue,and seeing shadows in the dark.

"Probably." Goto replied. "Everyone's been on edge since we secured this area. I wouldn't be surprised if Izumi is just seeing things from the stress after all. These people have been out here the longest of all the platoons". He stated matter-of-factly.

In truth, at this point, that's what everybody truly HOPED was the real reason for Izumi's alarm. The possibility that Izumi really HAD seen something after all, and that there actually was a security breach, was a horror no one wanted to believe.

"Noa, what exactly DID you see"? Shinohara asked for what seemed like the hundredth time to the young , short-haired woman, crouched behind the long-barreled M2 .50 cal Browning machine gun that she manned along with her loader/assistant gunner, Private Yusaku Godai.

Sakaki sighed. The young lieutenant, much to Sakaki's annoyance, had the particularly bad habit of calling all his people by their first name, instead of their rank and last name as was proper in the military.

Private First Class Noa Izumi, normally a sweet, cheerful, friendly (and undeniably cute,) 20 year old transfer from Logistics, now serving as one of the two heavy machine gunners in the outfit, was grinding her teeth in frustration, her anger with the lieutenant starting to boil over as he continually asked her over and over again, what it was that she had observed.

"Why doesn't anyone believe me dammit"? She groused.

She was further frustrated by the fact that there had also been no movement since she had first seen the shadow, and since no one else had seen anything either, not even her loader Private Godai, it was starting to look doubtful she ever had.

And now, with doubt creeping into mind, she was afraid that perhaps she HADN'T seen anything after all, and that worried her the most, because that meant another one of Sgt. Major Sakaki's infamous ass chewings for putting out a false alert.

"Sir,I was looking out towards the center of the bridge, and there was a small break in the fog for a moment and I thought I saw a man's shadow about 100 meters out, walking towards us." Noa said, repeating the same story as she had before, the edge on her voice becoming more and more noticeable.

"Then the mist got thick again, and I didn't see him anymore,…SIR." She said, a slight edge noticeable in her tone.

Shinohara sighed and raised the field glasses to his eyes once again.

"Mo!" She said under her breath when she had finished. "How many times do I have to say the same stupid thing?"

Unfortunately, Noa had not spoken as quietly as she had thought she had.

"IZUMI"! Sakaki hissed from behind her. He didn't need to say anything more. Noa could just feel his eyes boring a hole into the back of the young woman's helmet.

Noa swallowed hard, her anger forgotten, and tried as hard as she could to climb into her helmet away from the Sergeant Major's icy stare.

She knew she was going to get it now.

Military organizations the world over have certain standards for the treatment of men and women in their ranks. However, there was no such thing as differential treatment with Sgt. Major Sakaki.

Cross the line, and a dressing down or a boot in the butt was just as good for a woman as it was for a man as far as he was concerned.

When it came to discipline, Sgt. Major Sakaki was about as equal rights compliant as they come.

* * *

Shinohara smiled despite himself, as he stared through his binoculars.

He understood Izumi's frustration. But she was constantly shooting off her mouth, and getting into more trouble than most of his men. He also knew better than to interfere when the Sergeant Major was" disciplining" the troops. Tough, but always fair, Sakaki never went overboard on keeping the troops in line.

Still, the last thing anybody wanted was to be on his shit list.

Shinohara's opinion of Private Izumi had drastically changed from the day she had first arrived to his platoon to now. Pixy-sized in stature, cheerful face, and with a bubbly personality to match, Shinohara and the others had their doubts about her as to her capabilities in a fight.

Sakaki though, seemed to be completely trusting in her and in a relatively short time, she had truly impressed the rest of the group as well, when she proven to be extremely courageous and deadly fierce in combat, time and time again. No matter how grim or terrifying the situation, the young woman had done her best to be reliable, brave, and quick thinking. In all respects, an excellent trooper.

Still, the only thing bigger than Noa's heart, was her temper, which like now, was constantly getting her into trouble.

Shinohara's faint smile turned into a wide grin when he thought of what Izumi was in for when Sakaki got her back to Base.

* * *

Ask any new recruit in the military of any country, and there were few things on earth that could terrorize a new recruit than being the focus of an NCO's rage. Hollywood has long demonized the military Drill Sergeant in many of its motion pictures.

And ask anyone in the military if any of it is even remotely true and you will get a definite "HELL YES!"

Amongst the men and women of Echo platoon, death was preferable, because nobody could dress down a recruit like the Sgt. Major could.

Private Godai said nothing, although he wasn't out of the woods either. As Noa's assistant gunner, Godai often times suffered the same consequences along with Noa whenever she mouthed off.

Not because he had anything wrong, or was even present when she messed up. But he and Izumi were a team. And teams triumphed or suffered together. Still, he tried hard to look ahead into the fog and hoped to avoid the Sgt, Major's gaze.

Adjacent to them, the crew of the other Browning .50 cal, Pvt. Isao Ohta and his assistant gunner, Mikiyasu Shinshi, sighed and shook their heads. It was a scene all too common with them. Izumi was well liked by the entire platoon, but her temper, and her mouthing off was starting to get on everyone's nerves lately.

* * *

Shinohara glanced at his watch.

The time was now 0510. Normally, the first rays of daylight would be peeking out over the sea.

However now with the grey overcast skies and dense fog, visibility was still greatly reduced till around 0530 or so when the sun was high enough over the sea that it's glow would penetrate the clouds for them to be able to see well enough to finally power down the floodlights on the bridge.

Shinohara looked away from his field glasses for a moment and then looking over his shoulder, quietly ordered Sakaki to have the floodlights dimmed.

"Shige." Sakaki said to the corporal by his side. "Tell the "kids" the lieutenant wants the lights dimmed by 50 percent."

"Hai". The young man replied and staying low, went off to link up with the "kids" as everyone referred to the group of young maintenance technicians that were in charge of all the electrical equipment and the vehicles at the checkpoint.

After a few brief moments, the glow of the powerful floodlights dimmed, and as everyone continued to look out into the mist, there was still no sign of any movement or any activity whatsoever.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Nagumo's aide asked aloud, alarmed that the lights had been dimmed, as he stared nervously over the sights of his rifle.

"Fog has a tendency to reflect bright light and reduce visibility, much like the high beams of a vehicle would, on a foggy road." Goto replied, not lowering his binoculars. "By reducing the power to the floodlights, the lieutenant hopes to accomplish two things at once."

"Two things?" Nagumo asked slightly puzzled.

"Mmm." Goto grunted in reply. "By reducing the glare he hopes to improve visibility, now that the morning light is coming in,…. AND."

He let the sentence hang in the air dramatically for a moment.

"He hopes to coax any "visitors" to come out into the open." He said with that trademark Cheshire Cat grin of his, "Straight into the Kill Zone."

"COAX any visitors?'' Said Nagumo, even more puzzled. "The Infected have never reacted to light before."

"THEY,….. DON'T." said Goto, in that mysterious, almost condescending tone of his, that irritated her so much. "But I do NOT believe that what we're dealing with here, are any of the Infected."

"You seriously believe there still may be survivors, coming HERE?" Nagumo said in disbelief, lowering her binoculars to stare at her husband.

"NOW, after all this time with no contact, no sign, no signal, no nothing AT ALL?!" "What makes you think there could be survivors out there?!" Nagumo asked, thinking how ridiculous her husband could be for even believing such a thing. However, she knew her husband's response even before he uttered it.

Sometimes she didn't know why she even bothered.

"I don't know." Goto replied anti-climactically.

Everyone within earshot of Goto and Nagumo's verbal exchange and who had been hanging on to his every word and waiting for the climatic answer that was sure to follow, dropped their heads in disappointment.

Once again they were victims of the colonel's overly dramatic speeches only to have the rug pulled out from under them as the colonel admitted he had no basis on which to support his theories.

At least, that what he wanted them to think. Goto's sense of humor and his love of screwing with people's minds bordered on the sadistic.

* * *

Nagumo was about to chastise her husband, but was interrupted by the stealthy arrival of Lt. Takeo Kumagami and her platoon, who now battle ready, had quickly arrived to support Shinohara and his people. Goto and Nagumo waved them through, skipping the customary formalities.

As they passed by the two senior officers, Kumagami and her sergeant quickly dispersed their platoon amongst Shinohara's troops.

Among them, was the M60 gunner from Delta Platoon, who took his place in between the two .50 cal machine gun nests behind a pile of sand bags.

At six foot seven inches in height, and tipping the scales at 300lbs of solid muscle, the man was a giant, and his intimidating size belied the fact that the man was in actuality, a rather gentle giant, the son of a fisherman, and a farmer at heart.

Affectionately and almost comically known as" Hiromi-chan" by everyone in Delta and Echo Platoon, he was also one of the more reliable, and stable minded, of the troops.

After everyone in her platoon was in place, Kumagami and her sergeant, still keeping low, silently moved up to Shinohara's position.

Since Echo Platoon was still on duty during this incident and had not been formally relieved by them as of yet, Shinohara was still in command until he turned command of the situation over to her. Until then, this was still technically his show, so Kumagami quietly crouched near him to announce her platoon's arrival and await his orders.

"Delta Platoon reporting for duty, I already have my people dispersed with yours. What's your situation?" She whispered.

Normally, in the field, when two separate platoons would link up with each other, the two commanding officers would exchange information on the situation and then disperse their troops accordingly, that is, in most units anyway.

However Kumagami had a knack for anticipating Shinohara's moves and would often be one step ahead of him. It was a rare trait and one that Shinohara often found a blessing and an annoyance sometimes. But in combat, and especially now, he was grateful for her arrival and her thinking ahead.

* * *

" At 0450 Private Izumi reported seeing a shadow in the shape of a man about 100 meters ahead, moving towards our position." He replied, lowering his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "So far,…. nothing."

Kumagami frowned , as she thought she had heard a small sound that sounded like an angry grunt came from the right machine gun nest.

But blew it off as nothing as she really wasn't quite sure what it was that she heard anyway.

Shinohara knew exactly what it was Kumagami had heard though, but Noa was in enough trouble as it was, so he let it slide as he continued.

" HQ was contacted and advised of our situation. They're on alert and waiting for confirmation before they send out any reinforcements. For now, it's just us. I had the lights lowered to get rid of the glare, but we still can't see zip. I wanted to wait till you got here and it was light enough to see before I shut them down completely."

" And now that you're here",…. He said, his voice trailing off.

"Right." Kumagami nodded and turned towards her sergeant. "Kanuka-san, we're going to turn off the lights momentarily. Have everyone stand by and wait for Lt. Shinohara's order to take safeties off and prepare to open fire, ONLY, on his order."

The female sergeant nodded in acknowledgement and quietly moved back to pass the order along to the people in her platoon.

As she lifted a pair of binoculars to her eyes and scanned the misty road ahead of them Kumagami couldn't resist teasing Shinohara.

"So Azuma-chan." She said flirtatiously. "Missing my company so bad you're calling an alert just to see me again?"

"My," she purred. "It's only been twelve hours since last time."

Shinohara chuckled as he continued to scan the bridge. Kumagami was smart, professional and a dedicated soldier. But she just loved to tease him. One day, he just might call her out on her advances and ask her out, once all of this craziness settled down.

She was after all, a rather attractive woman.

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." He said flirting back. "It certainly makes the shift go a lot nicer. And I have to admit, the view is a huge improvement."

Kumagami laughed quietly to herself and said nothing.

Shinohara also turned his attention back to the task at hand, lifting the glasses to scan the bridge again.

"Strange." Kumagami thought to herself. "There's that weird noise again." As she thought heard another low angry grunt seem to come from somewhere to her right again.

* * *

Time: 0520

The early morning dawn had finally turned the inky black of night into dark, dull grey skies that were just enough to make the even dimmed floodlights glow unnecessary. It was SHOWTIME.

"That's it." Shinohara said, lowering his glasses and turning towards Sakaki. "Kill the lights."

Sakaki nodded in acknowledgement and made a cut-throat motion to Shige, to turn the lights off.

As the lights went off and the artificial light was replaced by the early morning luminescence, the dim light gave the mist an even more ominous feel, as the small band of soldiers nervously awaited the all too familiar sign of the moaning, lurching figures they dreaded, to come stumbling out of the fog.

Nervous fingers strained near the trigger and safety levers of their rifles, waiting for the order to flip the selector levers over and go "weapons hot", and make their now silent weapons roar into action.

The tension amongst the small party of men and women was unbelievable.

For a few more agonizing minutes, there was still no movement on the bridge even though the mist was starting to clear a bit finally. The only sound to reach their ears was the river rushing below and the unmistakable sound of Izumi grinding her teeth in frustration.

Shinohara sighed.

If this turned out to be a false alarm, and it certainly seemed to be the case so far, Noa would never be able to live this down. The ribbing from her squad mates would be bad enough, but the rest of the soldiers and sailors stationed here the new naval base would be relentless, not to mention Command giving him a ration of crap for calling in an alert because his people were seeing "shadows".

Shinohara sighed again and raised the binoculars to his eyes once more.

THERE.

* * *

It was only a brief glimpse through a small break in the fog, but Shinohara saw the distinct shrouded figure of a man slowly moving towards them.

"Contact." He said sharply, startling Kumagami.

"12 O'Clock, single figure, moving slow, about seventy meters." He said making a forward motion with his right hand.

All eyes within earshot immediately turned towards the direction Shinohara indicated, and as they scanned the fog, the specter that had eluded their eyes for the past forty minutes finally came into their view.

Kumagami felt a cold chill go up her spine as the figure of a man, deeply enshrouded in mist slowly approached them. As she watched him closing the distance between them, she felt her heartbeat pulsing harder as the fog eerily seemed to cause the man to briefly disappear and then reappear at intervals like some ghostly apparition coming for them.

Behind her, Goto and Nagumo both held their breaths as the specter slowly moved forward.

They were not immune to the spookiness of it all either.

Shinohara looked away from his glasses and turned towards Sakaki. " Everyone. Safeties OFF. HOLD fire until I give the command."

"Yokai." Sakaki replied, and turning around to face everyone behind them, used hand signals to quietly relay the order. The air was immediately filled with the distinct sound of the safety levers of every rifle being switched from "SAFE" to "FIRE".

And as the machine gunners on top of the two tank mounted machine guns, as well as Ohta in the left gun nest charged the big handles on their weapons, little Noa, thrilled to have been redeemed from the doubt that had been plaguing her for the past forty minutes, happily and enthusiastically pulled the big charging lever of her .50 cal. machine gun,

Her joy was short-lived though as more than a few audible gasps came from Lt. Kumagami's people and even a slight "eep", escaped Col. Nagumo's lips, as Noa cycled a round into the giant .50 cal. Browning, that she had fondly named "Alphonse."

Her mood quickly soured again after hearing the voices around her reacting in alarm, her eyes narrowing in anger. As she silently stewed behind the big gun, she wondered just exactly how much trouble she would be in if she just finally told everyone to f-ck off.

* * *

The reason for everyone's alarm was because, still fresh on everyone's mind, and probably seared into their brains forever, was the first time Private Noa Izumi had used a weapon to qualify with, during Basic Training, a year prior to the Outbreak.

As her instructors and fellow soldiers would testify later, Private Izumi was an outstanding recruit. Yet, for all her outstanding qualities and relatively minor personality flaws, the consensus was that Private Noa Izumi was undeniably, hands down, the WORST shot in the whole JSDF.

In truth, her small frame and light weight made handling of the standard issue Type 89 or as it was known in military circles as the "Buddy" rifle, was difficult for her to hold to her shoulder and control it at first.

But, ever eager to prove herself, Noa faced the challenge head on, and when the instructor ordered everyone on the firing line to fire ONE ROUND from a kneeling position at a man size target set 50 meters away, Noa steadied the sights of her rifle on the target, slowed her breathing to steady her aim just like she was trained, and then carefully squeezed the trigger on her rifle.

That she had accidentally flipped the selector switch to, on FULL AUTO.

* * *

Startled by the sudden recoil of her rifle on auto fire slamming against her shoulder, Noa screamed as she lost her balance, falling backwards onto her back, not thinking to loosen her grip on the trigger in the process, as 20 rounds of 5.56 ammo from her 30 round magazine, was shot into the air while recruits and instructors dove for cover.

When the noise of the rifle blast ceased after Noa finally released her grip on the trigger, the even LOUDER roar of her drill instructor, which as luck would have it, was Sgt. Major Sakaki at the time, could be heard clear across the range, chewing her out for being so stupid.

That incident became the stuff of legend among the recruits and became the image that would always be the first thing everyone would ever recall whenever Noa's name was ever mentioned, much to her everlasting embarrassment.

It was just a bad case of nerves that had plagued Noa that day. And the royal ass chewing and countless push-ups and running around the squad with her rifle over her head, not to mention the sore spot to her butt making contact with the Sergeant Major's size 11 boot when she fell behind, that followed, did little to steady them after that either.

Sakaki though, admired the young girl's spirit, and was determined to do his best to properly train her to handle a weapon even if it killed HER.

And by the end of this particular cycle of Basic Training (and hundreds of push-ups later,) Private Noa Izumi was just as proficient as the rest of the recruits with her weapon. Not to mention vastly improving her upper body strength with all the push-ups.

Of all the recruits however, the weapon,that the young pixie had excelled at most, Sakaki had noticed,was the big, American made M2 Browning .50 cal. machine gun.

Almost comical to see the small woman so comfortable behind the big gun that dwarfed over her small size, Sakaki had been impressed by her handling of the heavy machine gun. Her expertise with it was almost phenomenal, as if the thing had been made just for her.

At the time of her graduation after boot though, the greater need of the JSDF was an assignment less glamorous than what Noa envisioned. Her glorious reward after the long months in boot camp, hours of exhausting training and enough calisthenics to cripple an Olympic athlete, was a humiliating assignment to the Logistics Corps, …as a supply clerk.

And as operating the big "Ma Deuce" was not part of a supply clerk's daily routine, gifted or not, Izumi's dreams of being a heavy machine gunner were crushed. Fortunately for Izumi, the Outbreak had been her ticket to freedom from her prison of paper files and cardboard boxes.

While the JSDF was reeling from the huge losses of personnel during the first three days of the Outbreak and desperately trying to replace its ravaged ranks, one name that came up on the personnel roster that caught Sakaki's eye, was Private Noa Izumi's.

Remembering her name was no stretch for the old veteran who, to the surprise of everyone, requested her transfer to his platoon, despite the hesitation of his young lieutenant to have her in his squad.

Arranging her transfer was no problem whatsoever at this point. The JSDF needed bodies with guns and they needed them NOW.

Thus began Noa Izumi's new life as one of the two heavy machine gunners of Echo Platoon, of which she became an invaluable and well liked member. Unfortunately, Noa was still unable to shake the the past embarrassment, that still continued to haunt her since the incident at the rifle range.

In truth, the whole incident had been grossly exaggerated by the rest of the recruits during Basic Training, and as the story was passed down the line from soldier to soldier, there was nowhere Noa could go without everyone reacting in fear every time her thumbs came near the butterfly trigger of "Alphonse", her beloved .50 cal.

Sakaki knew his people well, and he appreciated along with the rest of the platoon Noa's talent with the big gun. There was one catch though. In the heat of battle,with the roar of the big .50 and the flash of the muzzle blazing away and her adrenaline racing with the fury of combat, little Noa Izumi didn't just get caught up in the excitement of battle.

Her blood lust would go through the roof.

* * *

More than a few times when they were in danger of being overrun and forced to pull back from the swarms of Infected about to overrun their position, Noa, on more than one occasion, had to literally be physically carried away from the battle by Hiromi-chan , kicking and screaming over the shoulder of the big M60 gunner of Delta Platoon cursing and throwing spent and still hot .50 cal casings at the throngs of Infected chasing them.

Despite this, everyone in Echo Platoon was fond of the little hothead, and right now, with a possible security breach, and who knows how many Infected headed their way, they were more than happy to have her and "Alphonse" with them, so there were no sounds coming from any of them. Not nescessarily because of unit integrity though.

They just knew better.

The sound of the selector switches on the rifles made a small "click" when they were switched from "SAFE" to "FIRE" that was audible to everyone's ears within a few feet of each other and of course, the sound of more than twenty of them at once is loud enough to be heard quite well within a relatively short distance away.

The sound of the charging handle on a Browning M-2 cycling a round into the firing chamber on the other hand, is unmistakably loud.

So as Noa pulled back the charging handle on "Alphonse" and let it slam forward, the reaction by the figure on the bridge slowly approaching their position was shocking and completely unexpected.

The man froze.

* * *

Everyone on the bridge was stunned by the man reacting to the noise made by Noa's gun.

The Infected had always reacted to sound, and no one had ever known them not to. They would halt perhaps a moment and slowly change direction towards the source of the sound, and then lurch towards whatever sound had attracted them, but this was something completely different.

NEVER did they just stop moving altogether. And the reaction amongst the group of soldiers was of pure disbelief at the man's next action.

The man raised his left hand above his head and closed his fist.

It was a signal to halt, which obviously wasn't directed to them, thus it only meant one thing.

He wasn't alone.

"What the hell?" Shinohara and Kumagami said aloud as one.

Slowly, out of the mist, like spirits materializing from thin air, several other ghostly figures emerged from the dense fog that was slowly clearing around them, and as it did, the clearing mist revealed an even more shocking discovery to the speechless soldiers on the bridge.

They were also all heavily armed.

"Ohhhh,…. SHIT." Noa said under her breath.

* * *

Author's Note:

First, I want to thank all of you that have been following my story thus far, and a special THANKS to all of you who took the time to give a review and put my story on your "favorites".

Being my first fanfic, and the first story I've written since high school, it's a great encouragement for me to receive such positive feedback from you folks.

Thanks again guys. I really appreciate it, and I'll try to keep the stories coming. And make them worth reading.

I also want to apologize as well. I kinda rushed through posting Chapter Two before I was really 100% happy with it, and as a result, I went back and edited it several times before I felt a little better about it. The last revision was Sunday, so if you notice a few changes to the story since I first posted it last week, that's why. I also want to apologize, because I had promised to introduce all the characters of the HOTD series in this chapter, and instead, I just have several "ghostly figures" mentioned instead.

The problem is that this story is bigger than I expected, and I admit, I had a little too much fun poking fun at poor Noa Izumi. I liked Noa a lot in Patlabor, but it would annoy me that in the series she would often times be too timid with a criminal, and thus get her butt kicked for a couple episodes before she finally would beat the guy and I would be like "Just kick his ass already!".

I thought it would be fun to make her a lot more like Ohta, who was the real hothead of SVD 2.

Anyway, this chapter went a lot smoother than the last one, and I had a lot more fun writing it. The next chapter, should be the last of the the bridge scene, if I can keep from droning on too much about the characters, and after that chapter, we will finally get to the main story, which is the events of the first day of the Outbreak, leading up to the anime, and then to the events of the manga, and then a few more original stories leading up to the climax of the story at the bridge.

By the way, SPOILER ALERT, there are TWO endings for this fanfic, and you'll see why I did that in the next chapter. Wanna hint? Can you say "Firefight?"

Like I said, the pace will be picking up, and since I've got more than 40 chapters lined up (thus far) for this fanfic, I'm gonna be pretty busy for a while.

I'm hoping I can keep it interesting for you.

Until then, thanks again for your support.

Coming up in the next few days,

"The Thin Red Line."


	4. Chapter 3 - The Thin Red Line

"The Thin Red Line of Courage" represents the last ounce of courage firefighters find within themselves to cross that thin, razors edge between life and death, in order to conquer their darkest fears to go above and beyond the Call of Duty, to save and protect life.

It is displayed as a red stripe over a black field.

Today, it is displayed to show respect for firefighters injured and killed in the line of duty.

* * *

Last Alarm

Chapter Three

"The Thin Red Line."

* * *

The small group of JGSDF soldiers were dumbfounded at the sight unfolded before them. And for a few moments, even Goto was somewhat surprised that his theory of there being survivors trying to cross the line had turned out to be completely accurate.

What further shocked him, and everyone else for that matter, was that this group of people didn't bear any resemblance to the panicked civilians climbing over each other in a mad dash for safety that they had encountered during the beginning days of the Outbreak.

This group's approach to their fortified position had been carefully calculated, stealthy, and coordinated in its execution.

The presence of a fully armed group of people standing before them was unforeseen to say the least. Instead of a security breach caused by numbers of Infected on a rampage that they had prepared for, or for that matter, even a group of frightened, sick, or starving refugees seeking desperately to reach safety, now they were facing an unforeseen scenario.

For the past five days, there had been no human contact made whatsoever, nor was there any observable sign of human life on the city side of the bridges that lined the area separating the Wharf Section, from the city itself. So the consensus had been that there were no possible survivors in the city.

Now, here they were, right in front of them, and the presence of weapons on their person, was another dilemma.

Were these people hostile, or not?

* * *

For a few brief moments, there was no action taken by either side. Shinohara, like everyone else, had not expected this kind of stand-off, and was at least for the moment, hesitant as to what to do about it.

Shinohara stared at Kumagami's face for a moment and saw the same puzzled look on her face as he felt was surely on his, and then both of them looked back towards Nagumo who was watching them intently and gesturing for them to do SOMETHING, and then they turned to Goto, who met their gaze and merely shrugged.

"Great. " Shinohara thought his apprehension growing. "NOW, what do I do?" he thought to himself, as he looked through his binoculars at the group of silent figures, unmoving on the bridge 60 meters away.

"Awfully heavily armed for normal refugees. Where did they get all those weapons anyway? And how the hell did they manage to survive all this time?" Nagumo said aloud as she continued to scan the shadowy figures on the bridge with her binoculars. "They're disciplined too. Members of our military, perhaps?" "Maybe a lost patrol from the Mainland?" she added, not really believing her statement herself.

" I don't believe so, Shinobu-san." Goto stated, calmly staring through his glasses. "And as bad as things are, I don't believe Command has of yet, approved the recruitment of school children. " Look closer."

As Nagumo adjusted the focus knob on her glasses, her eyes widened as the lifting fog revealed more details of the armed group of survivors in front of them, and she began to understand her husband's meaning.

They were definitely NOT at all what she had expected to see.

* * *

She counted ten of them, besides the man leading the group, she also counted two teenage boys, three adult women, three teenage girls, and a small girl of about 10 years of age or so.

But before she could study them any further, there was a sudden bustle of activity in front of her as Shinohara had finally reached a decision on how to handle the situation.

Leaning closer, she overheard Shinohara order one of his men to get him a bullhorn so he could make contact with the group on the bridge. The man quickly hurried to one of the tanks behind them, and after speaking to one of the men standing in the open hatch manning the .50 cal. Browning mounted on top of the tank. The tank gunner reached inside the hatch and passed the corporal the bullhorn.

"Here we go." She thought to herself.

* * *

As Corporal Shiba returned with the bullhorn and passed it to him, Shinohara thought for a moment about what he was going to say before he raised the bullhorn to his lips.

Just as he was about to squeeze the trigger button on the device and give verbal commands to the armed group on the bridge, the point man at the front of the group, suddenly raised his hand in a "STOP" motion and waved his hand back and forth, signaling Shinohara NOT to break silence by speaking through the bullhorn.

The signal from the man waving off Shinohara's attempt to communicate earned a few more murmurs along the line of soldiers, as well as a lot of puzzled looks on their faces.

Carefully, so as not to provoke the soldiers whose weapons and itchy trigger fingers were all trained on he and his group, the man pointed two of his fingers in the figure of a "V" towards his eyes, then slowly raised his rifle with both hands almost above his head with the muzzle facing away from the JSDF soldiers and then after lowering his rifle, and turning his head slightly, pointed with his left index finger over his right shoulder.

The soldiers of Bravo and Echo Platoons were dumbstruck.

The magnitude of what the man had just relayed with his simple hand signals had hit them with a jolt.

WHOEVER, these people were. They had NOT been stealthily approaching their position, in an unfriendly attempt to avoid detection by the small group of soldiers, nor had they any hostile intentions towards them at all.

In fact, it wasn't the small band of JGSDF soldiers and their weapons that the survivors were afraid of.

These people were stealthily trying to avoid detection by someone or something that was STALKING THEM.

* * *

"OH,… F_CK ME!" Shinohara said suddenly very much alarmed, dropping the bullhorn with a loud clatter to the street, and hurriedly drawing his issue pistol from its holster.

"This shit is getting deeper by the minute." He said, gritting his teeth.

If these people were being followed, then a LOT of valuable time had been wasted already, Shinohara realized. Now getting them to safety and ensuring the safety of his own people had gotten a lot more complicated.

He quickly looked over his shoulder at Goto, who met his eyes and nodded his head in silent agreement, easily reading the look on Shinohara's face that visibly conveyed what Azuma's intent of action was going to be next.

Shinohara then turned back around and glanced at Kumagami, his eyes locking into hers for a brief moment, as she silently nodded in agreement with whatever he was planning to do, no matter the outcome. He gave her a quick smile of thanks, and then turned towards the two sergeants crouched next to them.

"Everyone, get ready, hold fast for now but be ready in case this is a trick. If it is,…UNLEASH HELL." He whispered to Kumagami and Sakaki.

"Yokai." They acknowledged and turning to face everyone they relayed the order for everyone to "stand fast" with quick hand signals.

Sakaki mentally rolled his eyes as he did so. He sincerely wished that stupid movie "Gladiator" hadn't been made.

Now every young officer, his own included, that walked around with visions of glory dancing around in their head, thought he was Russell Crowe.

* * *

Turning around to face the group on the bridge once again, Sakaki released the retaining strap of his holster, removing his pistol and then racked the slide, with Sgt. Clancy also following suit.

Goto and Nagumo , by this time, were no longer content to just stand by and observe the drama unfolding in front of them any further, but as each of them looked into the others face, the unspoken words they felt could be read in their eyes as they silently drew their pistols from their holsters and separated, each taking a position behind the machine gun crews, the better to be able to command the soldiers on each side of the bridge .

This situation was now more dangerous than previously realized, and they were intent on doing their part to help.

Goto turned to Corporal Shiba, and placing his hand on his shoulder to gain his attention, whispered quietly.

"Shige-san." He said, removing his hand from the younger man's shoulder to pull the slide back on his pistol.

"Advise HQ, we have made positive contact with a small group of survivors. Possible hostiles may also be moving towards our position and we may have to engage soon. Tell them that the security breach is CONFIRMED, and to send reinforcements NOW!"

"Go!" Goto said his eyes focused straight ahead on the approaching party as he clapped the corporal on the shoulder to get moving.

Shinohara had seen the two senior officers take their place amongst his men, and was immediately grateful for their support. If things were about to turn sour, he was definitely wanting all the support he could get.

After a quick look around to make sure that all his people were ready, Shinohara turned again to face Kumagami , who also had her pistol out, and with a slight smile, nodded her head that she too was ready.

Taking a deep breath and then expelling it slowly to calm himself, Azuma then raised his hand to signal the man, and then motioned for he and his people to come forward.

* * *

"The man slowly nodded his head at Shinohara's gesture. He then raised his hand above his head to signal the rest of the people following him. He then turned his head to make sure that the people behind him could see his signal. As he did, the others behind them followed suit, each one turning his head to make sure everyone in their group, could see the same signal that the point man was relaying.

He then waved his arm in a forward motion which was repeated by each person in turn until as one, they started moving forward each individual spaced 3 meters from each other in all directions, …..in a modified diamond formation.

There were more than a few impressed murmurs of surprise amongst the JGSDF soldiers at seeing this. Even Nagumo's mouth dropped in surprise at the coordinated move.

"Who ARE these people?" She thought to herself. "Where did they learn how to act like a combat unit?"

Nagumo raised her glasses again as the small group, now only 60 meters away continued to advance forward.

Distracted from studying the armed civilians approaching their position by Shinohara's attempt at trying to make contact with them, Nagumo now focused her binoculars on the advancing group and began to study each individual, one-by-one as they closed the distance.

"They certainly are a motley crew." She thought to herself. "Odd though," She thought, "To spread themselves out in that formation in front of our guns. What were they thinking?"

As the fog continued to clear, and as the group of people continued to advance out of the mist, Namgumo tried to make out as much detail as she could on each individual. As they were facing her, she focused on each one as she scanned each of them in a clock-wise motion.

* * *

The point man was a male in his late 30's or early 40's, and as the fog cleared further, Nagumo was further shocked to see him wearing the navy blue uniform and badge of an officer of the Tokonosu City Police Dept.

His tired, unshaven face was slightly smeared with the remains of black camo paint as if he had made an attempt to wipe it off in a hurry. He was armed with a pistol in a holster on his right hip, and in his arms he carried an M-4 carbine, with the magazines for the rifle stored in pockets on the combat vest he wore.

"A policeman?!" Nagumo thought shocked at this development. "He can't be the reason they are all trained this well can he? Well, perhaps if he's ex-military." Nagumo reasoned. " It would explain a few things."

Directly behind the point man, walking at a distance of about 8 meters, a young woman in her mid-20's, dressed in an all-black jump suit and wearing a combat vest was carefully keeping pace with the man's footsteps.

She was armed with a small chrome, compact pistol of some sort on her right hip and in her arms she was carrying a Colt M-4 carbine. Her face, slightly smeared with camo paint was also very familiar. Because of the fog, Nagumo had not recognized her face right away, but someone else had.

* * *

"I know her!" whispered Kumagami.

"YOU DO?!" Shinohara asked dumbstruck. "Who is she?"

"I don't remember her name, but she was one of the instructors during an anti-terror drill we attended last year. She's one of the S.A.T. people!" Takeo said with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice.

Evidently, Kumagami had been impressed by her for some reason, Shinohara thought to himself.

It was starting to make sense though. Having an anti-terror instructor in their group would also explain why these people were acting like a trained combat unit instead of a bunch of half-cocked gun nuts.

Nagumo, overhearing the whispered conversation between Kumagami and Shinohara, suddenly remembered why the young woman's face was so familiar. Sgt. Rika Minami, age 26, assigned to the S.A.T. and also one of the top five best snipers in all of Japan.

She had become acquainted with the young woman two years ago, during a demonstration of the S.A.T. Division's anti-terror capabilities. During one particularly complicated hostage scenario, Nagumo and Goto had seen first-hand, Sgt. Minami's prowess with her sniper rifle.

The young woman had made a lasting impression on Nagumo and the rest of the brass that had attended that demonstration of her skill.

"What is she doing with THIS bunch?" Nagumo wondered, her brow furrowing.

* * *

Still going clockwise, at what was the 7 O'Clock position from Nagumo's field of view, and to Sgt, Minami's right, walked a young girl of about 18 years of age, dressed completely in black, her long black hair tied in a ponytail behind her head. She was a lovely young woman and had a strikingly calm demeanor about her, But the look on her eyes was a different story however, Nagumo frowned.

Her eyes were not those of a scared teenager, but rather, they were the cold, steely eyes of a killer. And as if to prove it, she was armed with a pistol sitting in a thigh holster strapped to her right thigh, a suppressed H&K MP5 in her hands, and a rather long and ornate katana was strapped to her back.

"Kunoichi." Goto heard someone snicker.

Walking behind the young swordswoman, and off to her right, a young teenage boy of about 17 years of age walked at the formation's 9 O'Clock position.

* * *

Nagumo looked at the young boy dressed in the weather beaten dark blue uniform worn by high school students and carrying a Benelli semi-auto shotgun with a bandoleer full of shells over his shoulder. As fearsome as he looked though, not even the smeared camo paint on his face or the weapons he carried could cover the look of his very youthful appearance. His hair was unkempt in the style that was becoming quite popular among Japan's youth, and Nagumo couldn't help but notice that he was very handsome as well.

She quickly looked away and chided herself for staring, lest her husband notice and give her hell for staring. Not that he was the angry or jealous sort, he just seemed to take sadistic joy in exposing the kinks in here armor, so to speak. She turned her attention away from him and quickly focused on the young boy at the 11 O'Clock position walking behind him.

* * *

Like the other boy, this one was also a teenager and wearing the same rumpled, dark blue school uniform. But there the resemblance ended. Where the first boy was tall and handsome, the other boy was short, chubby, and somewhat dumpy looking. Still, while his physical appearance was not very striking, his demeanor most certainly was, Nagumo thought.

The way he carried himself was not like some whiny, wimpy, fat kid struggling to keep up with the group. His spectacled face was hardened, like that of an experienced combat veteran, his eyes hard, sharp. and alert for danger. Hardly the look of the typical junk food gorging, X-Box playing, computer nerd looking kid you see all the time.

But if he was, he had definitely been playing too much "Call of Duty", judging by how heavily armed he was, with what looked like an Knight's Armament SR-25 sniper rifle in his hands and a combat vest bulging with magazines and a cross-draw holster in which it appeared that the butt of an old Luger sat.

Goto's eyes meanwhile, had focused on the open space behind the two people at the center of the formation behind the S.A.T. woman. "Strange." Thought Goto,"There's no rear security watching their back. He must be still in the fog somewhere, hanging back. If not, they had seriously compromised themselves in the worst possible way by not having someone posted to guard their rear.

Goto didn't believe they could have had that serious a lapse in judgment though. All things showed that these people were smarter than your average civilian. He then trained his glasses on the young girl at the One O'Clock position of the formation.

* * *

The teenage girl who appeared to be around 16 years of age, was wearing a dark green cravat covering her head over shocking pink hair, that peeked out at certain spots. She was obviously very young and very pretty, although her youthful face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl behind her spectacles for some reason. She was dressed in dark blue jeans, cut off at the knee and a black blouse over which the nylon strap attached to her suppressed H&K MP5K hung over her shoulder.

The teenage girl at the 3 O'Clock position was about 17 with long reddish brown hair, wearing a dark jumpsuit and carrying what appeared to be a modified American M-1 carbine complete with bayonet.

There was a striking resemblance between the teenage girl, and the short-haired woman at the 5 O'Clock position," Nagumo thought. She was dressed in the dark blue uniform of a motorcycle cop complete with high leather boots and riding pants. She also carried a suppressed H&K MP5 in her hands, and a small compact 1911 style pistol in a cross draw holster on her combat vest.

"A Mother and her daughter". Nagumo thought.

* * *

Nagumo next turned her attention to the only two people that were unarmed in the group, a young woman wearing a dark scarf covering over her blond hair, and dark coveralls, and the small girl who held the older woman's left hand in both of hers. And was also obviously very frightened.

Nagumo wasn't the only one who noticed the blond.

In fact, every male soldier was way ahead of her in noticing the young blond woman who had stepped out of the fog.

She was quite beautiful despite the smudged camo paint on her face. And the loose-fitting dark coveralls did absolutely nothing to hide the fact that she was rather amply proportioned in the chest area, of which none of the male soldiers failed to notice judging by the loud murmurs coming from all the men. The backpack she was wearing over her shoulders only served to stretch the material of her jumpsuit in a way that GREATLY enhanced her figure, much to their delight as well.

Col. Nagumo lowered her glasses with a scowl, and shot an angry look over at her husband as he tried to clear his throat in a useless attempt to cover over his own slip of the tongue over the woman's proportions.

The little girl that was hanging on to her with both hands was about 10 years of age and like the rest of the group,wore dark clothes and a small school knapsack hanging off her shoulders, visibly frightened despite the attempts by the older woman to console her.

"Four adults, five teenagers, and one child." Goto mused." Three of them possibly police, the rest civilian."

"They look like schoolchildren." Nagumo agreed. "Perhaps the blond is their teacher, or just a mother and her daughter the group took into their fold."

"I don't think she's the girl's mother." Goto said in that calm voice that annoyed Nagumo sometimes. I didn't notice any facial resemblance that would suggest she's the girl's mother."

"YES,…. I'm SURE that's the FIRST thing, you noticed about her!" Nagumo said acidly.

Goto, sweating a little, and knowing full well he was in the doghouse for saying "Ara, Ara." (My,My) a little too loudly when the blond woman first appeared, had no reply.

Nagumo raised the glasses back to her eyes with a huff, just as the last missing man providing rear security behind the main group emerged from the mist. Nagumo sucked in her breath.

"Who the hell is that?"

* * *

The man was BIG.

Not as big as Hiromi-chan, but the man was definitely no stranger to a gym.

Nagumo guessed he was about six feet in height and over 260 pounds. The man was big shouldered and had the chest and arms of a man accustomed to hard labor. He was also definitely a foreigner, probably American either of Latin or Middle Eastern descent, judging from the brown skin color of his face and arms, and his black wavy hair with flecks of grey at the temples.

He was wearing some brand of clear shooting glasses and was dressed in a navy blue t-shirt over which he wore a tan combat vest full of magazines for the carbine, and faded blue jeans, with tan combat boots on his feet.

He was also the most heavily armed of the group, carrying some sort of highly modified, short barreled carbine in his hands,and on his right hip, he wore a pistol in a tactical thigh holster strapped to his right leg.

He also wore a large survival knife of some sort strapped, divers-style, on his right calf, and inside a very large backpack that he carried over his shoulders, the stock of some sort of sniper rifle was protruding.

And despite how big as he was, plus the combined weight of his equipment and weapons, the man moved as silently as the rest, occasionally turning around with the rifle to his shoulder, checking the rear.

Shinohara was glad this man had not been the first to come out of the mist. Who knows how his people would have reacted seeing this big man coming out of the fog.

Sakaki was also closely examining the big man, and sizing him up. He had the appearance of many of the former American and British serviceman working for "Private Security Companies", that Sakaki would often see at some of the military bases and local bars.

In the past few years, there had been many of these "Private Military Contractors" (which was the politically correct way of saying "mercenary"), roaming around Japan. Usually those men were on their way to a "contract" or coming back from one. Most, were very professional, Sakaki had noted over the years. But as a career soldier himself, he didn't much care for the concept of "soldiers for hire".

Of all the people in the group, Goto noticed, this man purposefully kept his carbine against his shoulder, at the ready. Unlike the rest,who were careful to keep their rifles at waist level to appear non-threatening,

He was being very careful to keep the muzzle pointed down though, when facing the JGSDF soldiers so as not to appear as a threat. But each time he made a security check of the group's rear, the man would turn around raising the muzzle directly into the mist as he did so, and make a sweep of their rear. In short, the man was ready to engage whatever danger presented itself, while the rest were trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.

* * *

"American Military?" asked Kumagami. "Maybe British SAS?"

"No insignia, or anything identifying who he's with, that I can see." Shinohara replied. "That would fit the profile somewhat. He also moves like he knows what he's doing." He added.

"But there's something,….off about him." Shinohara thought to himself.

In a world filled with wannabe military buffs and fake heroes, the men and women of the military, especially the Special Operations people, have had a lot of practice weeding out the fakes from the real operators.

There are many ways to tell whether a man is what he says he is, and who is most definitely not what he claims to be, and not just by catching the fake soldier in a lie. Those in combat can spot even the best practicing fake from a mile away just by looking at him.

Ask them how they can spot a fake, and some will explain that there's just a way a soldier walks, talks, breathes, jokes, curses, etc. that another soldier can tell whether he's the genuine article or not.

Shinohara wasn't quite sure of what to make of this fellow though.

* * *

Looking over at Kumagami's sergeant that was crouched next to them, Shinohara half-jokingly asked. "Friend of yours?"

29 year old Staff Sergeant Kanuka Clancy, a Japanese- American born in Hawaii, on loan from the United States Military on an military exchange program, shook her head.

"I've never seen HIM before." She said, watching him closely. " A man that size isn't hard to forget, and even though there are a lot of guys his size serving in our military, I don't recognize him from any of the bases around here."

"I'm betting my money that he's one of those "PMC's", either American or British. Sakaki offered. " Or, maybe even some wannabe that got caught in all the excitement and is just tagging along with the rest."

"Either that, or, he's just the best trained tourist I've ever seen." Sakaki added in a rare display of humor.

Shinohara pondered this as the group was now almost 40 meters away and closing.

The moment of truth had arrived and Shinohara needed to act.

He turned to Kumagami and Sgt. Clancy and gave them instructions on what was going to happen next.

* * *

"I'm going to call a halt about 20 meters away in front of the dividers, and the Sgt. Major and I are going to parley with the point man and tell him what to do if he and his party want to cross over here."

"Takeo, take charge and if anyone tries anything funny, don't hesitate, blow them away." Kumagami looked at Shinohara, her eyes widening at this order, but she could see that his eyes were deadly serious, and she nodded her head .

" If they ARE just refugees running for safety, I'll have them disarm where they stand and we can pat them down single file till we get them shipped off to base to debrief. Everyone gets cuffed till we sort out this mess, agreed?" Both of the two women slowly nodded their heads in agreement.

As the silently moving formation came within 20 meters of the first row of concrete dividers, Shinohara signaled for them to halt.

"Here we go." He whispered to Sakaki as the Seargent Major grunted in reply.

* * *

Immediately, the point man raised his closed fist in the air, and ordered a halt, and as each of them came to a stop, the rear guard turned completely around and kept the muzzle of his carbine pointed directly into the mist.

Shinohara then motioned for the policeman to step forward with his rifle slung, in order to parley and give instructions to the man as to how he and his group could safely approach the checkpoint.

Comprehending what Shinohara was attempting, the man raised his hand for all in his party to see and signaled for them to hold their position and get down. He then slung his rifle over his shoulder and tapped a large PTT button clipped to his combat vest and whispered a command to the rear sentry, who immediately dropped to one knee, his carbine still sweeping back and forth.

It was only then, that the JGSDF soldiers saw the tiny earpieces and throat mikes that the three police officers and the rear guard wore. None of the others were so equipped, which meant, Goto concluded, that these four were the real pros here and the main security force of the group.

The soldiers were even further impressed by the group of civilians as they all knelt on one knee, with the three women in the front of the formation and the two unarmed civilians facing forward towards the JGSDF position while everyone else followed the rear guard's example and faced rearward, their weapons raised to their shoulder and the muzzles sweeping back and forth, confirming that the danger was indeed from the rear, and not the soldiers guarding the bridge.

Shinohara realized he needed to hurry if these people were that worried about a threat nearby.

"Damn, I can't wait to hear the story behind these people." Shinohara said to Sakaki.

"You and me both." Replied the Sgt, Major. "Looks to be one hell of a tale. I just hope whatever's scarying them is not bigger than we can handle." He added.

"Let's get moving then." Shinhara said, apprehension in his voice.

* * *

As Shinohara and Sakaki stood up and proceeded to walk with pistols drawn, towards the police officer who was approaching the barrier. It was eerily quiet, with no sound save for, the rushing water beneath the bridge and the sound of Shinohara's heart beating against his chest.

As Shinohara was just about to walk through the concrete dividers, he looked directly into the man's tired face who was slightly smiling, in an obvious attempt to show that he was indeed , not a threat.

"Or maybe he really is just happy to see us." Shinohara thought. "I can't imagine the hell he and his people have gone through, stuck on that side of the river." Just as Shinohara returned the smile he thought he saw a small flash come from the fog, somewhere behind the man's head from across the bridge.

The man's smile instantly vanished, as his face twisted in shock and surprise and a loud grunt escaped from his mouth as the cop suddenly pitched forward on to his face as the report of a high powered rifle echoed from across the river.

There was a moment of stunned silence as the soldiers looked in horror as the man fell to the ground.

And didn't move.

* * *

Instinctively, Shinohara and Sakaki ducked behind the concrete barrier, yelling "HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE! as the rest of the soldiers were nearly on the verge of opening up on the group kneeling on the bridge, after hearing the shot from the hidden sniper.

The question of whether the survivors were evading the Infected or evading human pursuers had been dramatically answered with deadly results.

Behind them, on the other side of the concrete barrier, Shinohara could hear two of the women screaming after seeing the fallen man.

"TADASHI !" Shinohara heard the older woman scream.

The young girl was in hysterics screaming again and again.. "PAPA!" ….. "PAPAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" … "MAMA!"… " LET ME GO!"

As they slowly raised their heads to peer over the concrete wall, the woman and the teenage girl that had been at the right corners of the formation were violently struggling with one another.

The older woman, who was barely keeping her own emotions in check, was desperately trying to keep the girl from running towards the fallen man by holding her down with her body as the girl was hysterically screaming and trying to push the woman away.

"Aw, DAMMIT!" Shinohara thought. "They're a family. And now they just watched her father get shot in front of them."

" F_CK!" He roared in frustration.

* * *

The reaction amongst the kneeling group was nothing less than remarkable.

There was no panic at the unseen sniper at all. Instead, after the shot was heard, all of the teenagers had hit the ground, while the rear guard, and the S.A.T. woman remained kneeling, their weapons pointed in the direction of the shot.

Goto could also see the two communicating through their throat mikes. After a brief exchange of words, the blond woman and the little girl in the center were then motioned by the S.A.T. officer to move forward, and get behind her.

And as the woman did so with the scared and crying young girl beside her, they stopped to kneel next to the man as the woman reached over to check the man's neck for a pulse.

Obviously being the medic of the group, she wasted no time in assessing his injuries.

"He's breathing!" Shinohara heard the woman shout. It didn't go through!" Azuma breathed a sigh of relief. But the danger wasn't over.

"So he was wearing body armor after all." Goto concluded. "Still." Goto thought. "He's hurt, and he's way too heavy for the woman and child to remove from the danger zone by themselves."

"Shinohara"! Goto barked. The time for stealth was now over. The enemy knew they were here, but the fog was probably obscuring his visibility as well, since there had been no other shots fired. But that might not be the case much longer, he realized.

"Get those people out of there!" He roared.

* * *

Shinohara nodded, and yelled at two of his men to follow him. As they ran across the barriers to reach the fallen man, Nagumo looked over at Kumagami and Sgt. Clancy.

"Get them to cover behind the tanks as soon as Azuma gets over here, and be sure to search all the survivors as they come through. We'll be sending the rest of them to you shortly. Now, GO!" She ordered.

As the pair ran off to set a safe staging area for the wounded man and the rest of the soon to be incoming survivors, Nagumo crouched near the machine gun nest manned by Noa and Godai.

"Wait for my signal. " She commanded. "When it hits the fan, things are going to be happening very fast and orders are going to be coming very quick, so be ready."

Nagumo wasn't just saying that for no apparent reason. Up to this point, the J.G.S.D.F. soldiers had only been shooting at the Infected.

For these soldiers, this was their very first engagement at an enemy that could actually shoot BACK.

* * *

As Shinohara and his men carried the wounded man and escorted the blond woman and little girl through the barriers. The teenager who had hysterically tried to run to her fallen father, upon seeing he was only stunned, had miraculously regained her composure, and grabbing her rifle, resumed her position in formation.

"Well what do you know?" Sakai thought impressed. "I didn't think she had it in her. Good girl."

As the girl got back into formation, Goto heard the S.A.T. officer giving orders and immediately all the teenagers picked themselves up from the ground, and now in a kneeling position, were preparing to withdraw.

" Damn, I want to be present when they de-brief this bunch." Goto thought.

A sudden volley of shots sounded from across the river had all the JGSDF soldiers ducking their heads, as the scream of bullets flying overhead and the whine of bullets ricocheting off the bridge's framework suddenly pounded their position.

While the JSDF soldiers had plenty of cover behind sandbags, the tanks and the concrete dividers, the survivors still on the bridge were still caught out in the open and were horribly exposed. They were dead if the soldiers didn't do something to help them right away.

Goto was about to yell at them to hit the dirt and order his gun crews to open fire and suppress the threat, but he was too late.

The survivors had already prepared in advance for this scenario.

If the JGSDF soldiers had been impressed with the survivors since they had first made their appearance,

Then the next few seconds were about to blow their minds.

* * *

"CONTAAAAAACT!" The big man in the rear roared,as he opened up on full automatic, the shorter barrel of his carbine magnifying the blast and roar, as he fired into the general direction of where the shots had come from. The two teenagers on either side of him, also immediately opened up with their weapons on full auto as the rest of the formation held their fire.

"ARE YOU F_CKING SHITTING ME?!" said Shinohara incredulously, as he turned to face the drama unfolding in front of him, and recognized the maneuver they were executing. "They're actually PEELING?"

And as he watched, he was stunned to see that they were indeed, performing the highly aggressive tactic often executed by Special Operations Teams of withdrawing from a possibly superior force, known as the "Center Peel".

As their guns ran dry, the two teenagers turned around and ran full speed towards the back of the formation, headed towards the JGSDF soldier's position as their companions behind them, opened up with their weapons, covering them as they ran.

Nagumo could now see why their formation was spread out so much. It was to give the teens a clear field of fire in front of them, to avoid accidentally shooting each other in case of their being forced to engage an enemy.

By this time, the bolt on the man's carbine slammed onto an empty chamber.

Unlike the two teens that were shooting weapons loaded with 30-round magazines, the man had loaded his carbine with a Surefire 60-round magazine that had enabled him to sustain fire longer, ensuring that the two teens would be on the move to safety after emptying their 30-round magazines before he ran dry.

As he stood up and turned to run, he dropped the empty magazine from his carbine and letting it fall to the ground, quickly pulled a double magazine set-up from one of the pockets in his combat vest, and shoved it into the magwell of his carbine as he ran by the S.A.T. woman who was shooting in single shot mode and then switched to auto fire as he passed.

Sakaki watched the man as he passed the woman and slapped the bolt catch on the side of his carbine. Suddenly he stopped running, and turning around, knelt several feet behind the woman instead of running all the way to the dividers and safety.

Sakaki frowned. The reason the man did that was obvious. With the policeman down, these two adults were one man short to cover them as they peeled. So in order to ensure everyone made it to safety, the man had made the decision to stay and hold his ground so the rest could escape.

It was a brave act, and suicidal as well.

"Damn fool." Sakaki said, gritting his teeth.

* * *

"COME ON!" Sakai roared at the pink haired girl and the fat kid as they weaved through the dividers. "MOVE YOUR SORRY ASSES! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!" "MOVE IT!" He yelled, as rounds continued to scream overhead.

With the roar of the weapons fire, there was no way the survivors could hear anyone tell them to get down so the soldiers guns could provide cover fire to protect them. After the first shot, the civilians were committed to their peel maneuver until they could get clear of the soldiers guns.

Until then, the JGSDF soldiers could only watch helplessly as the survivors fought for their lives.

As the S.A.T. woman and the two teens on either side of her emptied their guns and turned to run, Sgt. Minami dropped her magazine and reached for another from her vest as she turned around to join them in their dash for safety.

Nagumo saw the shocked look on her face as Sgt. Minami saw the big man kneeling there, shooting his rifle and covering her, instead of having run through the barriers to safety like he was supposed to.

There were more than a few sharp angry words shot at the man as she passed by him and then knelt a few feet behind to cover HIM, whenever he stopped firing.

As the two teens ran weaving through the concrete dividers, with Sakaki and the other soldiers yelling and waving them past, the man, unlike before, did not switch to full auto when the S.A.T. sergeant passed by.

Instead, he continued firing , double-tapping through the fog, aiming where he saw small flashes from the enemies rifles.

As the motorcycle cop and the pony-tailed girl emptied their magazines and began their mad dash to safety, the man fired his last round, and instead of turning around and running, he deliberately dropped his magazine and switched to the other, slapping the bolt catch and resumed firing the carbine on full auto, as the S.A.T. officer stared at him mouth open in disbelief and then started yelling at the two women to hurry up.

"F_CK YOU! The man roared over the blast of his carbine to the unseen enemy across the bridge.

Goto gritted his teeth, as he realized what the man was trying to do. He wasn't trying to put on a front of reckless bravado, nor was he just caught up in the fury of the firefight.

He was buying time for the women to get clear of the guns, and was deliberately sacrificing himself to do so.

* * *

The S.A.T. woman was royally pissed off at the man, and was screaming at him as his carbine burned through the 30 round mag. And as the bolt again slammed onto an empty chamber, the man transitioned from his carbine and removed his pistol from its holster, squeezing off three seperate , double-tap shots.

Looking behind, and seeing that the other two women were almost in the clear, he finally ran towards the S.A.T. woman as she fired her M-4 to cover his escape.

Just as it appeared that they were all about to be clear of the soldier's guns and make it possible for the soldiers to finally open fire, the big man suddenly appeared to have slipped on the wet pavement and slammed into the woman, covering her body with his as they both crashed to the ground.

Sakaki saw the man and woman fall and in that moment, saw the opportunity that they had been waiting for.

"GET DOWN!" Sakaki shouted to the two women as they were about to run through the dividers. As they hurled themselves to the ground, the soldiers, whose nerves had been on a razors edge for days, and had just barely been able to keep from opening fire during the last few moments when the shooting began, heard the order that they had been eagerly awaiting.

"OPEN FIRE!" Goto roared, as more than twenty assorted rifles and small arms as well as the two M60's, and the four big .50 cal guns opened up, bathing the bridge in brilliant flashes of light and the roar of automatic weapons fire, sending tracers screaming and ricocheting across the bridge.

* * *

Down at the base, after the request for reinforcements was made, men had been madly, scrambling to their vehicles to reinforce the soldiers at the bridge. And as the trucks drove through the misty roads towards the battle, the relief troops watched the flashes on the bridge from the smaller guns of the survivors, in stunned silence at the battle being waged on the bridge.

But as the heavier machine guns of the small band of JGSDF soldiers along with all the other small arms were unleashed, the noise and the muzzle flashes of all the guns bathed the bridge in a bright flashing silhouette that was visible from afar.

The sight earned more than a few startled gasps among the relief troops in awe at all the firepower being unleashed.

"Step on it!" The officer in charge of the column yelled to his driver. "They must be in serious trouble to be using that much firepower!"

* * *

Back at the bridge, there were no single-fire shots, and there were no controlled bursts of weapons fire as was standard procedure in a firefight. In this case, the situation at hand did not call for accuracy or ammo conservation. The soldiers of ECHO and BRAVO Platoon had been ordered to unleash hell, and they complied.

Selector switches were all switched to AUTO fire and triggers were held down as a torrent of suppressive fire was sent across the river. Rifle magwells with empty magazines were replaced with full ones as fast as soldiers could load them.

Even in the roar of weapons fire, Noa Izumi's shrill voice could be heard screaming, as "Alphonse" spit lead downrange, until finally, the M60 and .50 cal. guns went dry.

Only then did Goto and Nagumo order a cease fire.

* * *

As the firing abruptly stopped and the sound of battle ceased, there was no return fire or noise of any kind at all heard from the other side of the river, or even amongst the JGSDF soldiers for a few moments. The smell of burnt gunpowder was extremely thick in the misty air and as the haze from the smoke mixed with the fog, visibility became even harder.

Suddenly, off in the distance, the screams of the wounded could be heard through the mist causing some of the soldiers to involuntarily shiver from listening to the sounds of those in pain echoing across the water.

After waiting a few more moments, and still no response came from the other side. Sakaki barked at the two women in front of the barriers to get moving and then yelled over the dividers for the other man and woman still lying on the ground, to get clear as well.

Goto could see the man and woman from where he was standing, and as soon as the man had lifted himself off the woman lying underneath him, the woman punched the man hard in the chest, and began shouting angrily at him as she sat up.

"Chivalry in a man is not necessarily a trait appreciated or desired by the fairer sex sometimes." Goto thought to himself with amusement.

Shinobu also vehemently despised that old- fashioned style of chivalry as well. And it had led to many interesting battles between the two, whenever he attempted any display of chivalry towards her or any other woman.

The man's response to the angry woman's scoldings was to finally yell in a voice that was definitely that of an American.

"Awww, SHUT UP, WOMAN!" The man said as he then raised his hand and gave the woman a resounding slap across her shapely rear as she struggled to get up.

The woman gave a sharp yelp at the slap to her rump, and then giving him a very nasty look, she walked away from him, one hand rubbing her butt, as she weaved through the dividers, still continuing to yell harshly at him, her face a mask of fury.

The American meanwhile had gotten to his feet, and slowly walked through the dividers, far behind the much smaller woman.

* * *

Goto suppressed a laugh,…..barely.

Even in the midst of all this carnage, and the danger of sniper fire or a counter-attack, these two were engaged in a ridiculously hilarious domestic dispute in front of everyone after only moments before being involved in a life or death struggle from which they and their companions had just barely survived.

"Her temper certainly matches Shinobu's " Goto thought. "Wonder how long those two have been together?"

Sakaki, hands on his hips, looked at the couple and shook his head at their antics. He personally wanted to chew out the American for being so reckless, but the young woman was doing just fine taking him down a notch without his help.

"Damn Americans." Sakaki thought looking at the slowly walking figure trying to negotiate through the dividers.

"Every one of them thinks he's John Wayne." The old soldier sighed, shaking his head.

* * *

Noa, in the meantime, was yelling at Godai to hurry up with the reload as the American, trying to weave through the dividers, suddenly tripped and fell against the concrete block and seemed to just hang there in front of the smoking M-2, as Noa closed the steel cover on her gun and pulled the large charging handle on "Alphonse".

"Hey!" she screamed. "Get clear of my gun, you idiot!"

When the man tried to get up and move out of Noa's line of fire, he succeeded in taking only a few steps more before falling against the divider once again. Goto suddenly realized why the man was walking so slowly, and not just because he was trying to avoid the wrath of the young S.A.T. officer.

And as he ran closer to him, the man suddenly coughed up a rather large amount of foamy red blood that splashed onto the divider and over his combat vest.

Goto's suspicions had now been confirmed.

The man had been wounded. And worse, all signs pointed to the fact that he had been shot in the lung. A potentially, fatal injury.

* * *

"HIROMI-CHAN!" Goto yelled at the big M60 gunner who was also in the process of reloading. As he looked up, Goto pointed at the wounded man, and yelled, "GRAB, HIM!"

Noa was struck speechless at seeing the wounded man go down, and instantly felt bad for yelling at him. As several others rushed to help, Hiromi put the man's arm around his neck and easily lifted him from the ground, pack and all, and helped him around the dividers.

The shouts of the soldiers caught the attention of the S.A.T. officer who turning around, expected to see her companion directly behind her. Instead, her friend's face and combat vest were covered in blood and he was hanging limply while being carried at the shoulder by the biggest man she had ever seen.

"Jim-u?" She said, shocked by the man's injuries and the amount of blood on his face and clothes. Then the reality of his injuries hit her.

"JIM-U!" She shouted, more shrilly this time.

"Sorry Rika-chan, I really messed up this time." The man managed to say between gasps, coughing up frothy blood in the process.

Goto had been through enough combat to realize that one of the man's lungs was collapsing, and if he didn't get help soon, it would be too late. "Get the medic!" Goto shouted. As Hiromi continued to half carry the man toward the staging area behind the tanks.

The S.A.T. woman, in shock over the injuries to her friend, had not heard the order Goto had given calling for the JGSDF medic, and she began to call for the blond haired woman.

"Shizuka!" she yelled for the blond medic, as the man's respirations became more labored and he continued to cough up blood, his face beginning to turn ashen in color.

When she failed to get a response, her voice became even more desperate in her attempt to locate the medic. "SHIZUKA?!" She shouted again looking for the woman and still not seeing her.

"SHIZUKAAAAAA! She screamed, tears starting to fall from her face.

* * *

All of the soldiers were moved by the woman's cry for help.

The highly intelligent, highly skilled professional S.A.T. sniper was now in an unfamiliar state of panic, and not one of them was unaffected at hearing the pain in her voice.

Goto , Nagumo, and Shinohara watched as the man was carried away to the staging area behind the tanks where Kumagami and Sgt. Clancy had detained the others.

They turned away though, after hearing the cries of the other survivors reacting to the sight of their wounded comrade.

Lt. Kumagami would have to deal with maintaining order amongst the survivors to allow the medics to do their job for now.

There was no more the senior officers could do for them, as they now had to deal with the possibility of a counter-attack, or worse, a real breach caused by the damage from the weapons fire. Either way, they had to prepare to meet any new threat and do it quickly.

Suddenly, their brief respite was ended, as the sound of gunshots began anew across the river. The soldiers immediately scrambled for cover and manned their weapons, preparing to engage the enemy once again.

However, this time there was no whine of bullets overhead or ricochets against the steel girders on their side as before.

* * *

Sakaki was quietly looking across the bridge as flashes of sporadic gunfire were visible through the mist.

"Whats happening?" Noa asked the old sergeant.

"Mmm." He mumbled in reply. "The noise from all the gunfire attracted THEM. His voice sounded tired as he continued. "Now THOSE idiots, are the ones under attack."

Noa jumped, as the sounds of sudden screaming echoed across the bridge and were then abruptly cut off.

The small party of soldiers stared vacantly across the bridge as the mist suddenly thickened once again, obscuring the view of the middle of the bridge and the city beyond. The only sound to their ears, the rush of the river below them.

Hell had claimed its victims for now.

And it's gate was now closed once again.


	5. Chapter 4 - The Floating Airport

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." Winston Churchill

* * *

Last Alarm

Chapter Four

"The Floating Airport."

* * *

For Chris Kyle

* * *

Location: Tokonosu International Airport – Maintenance Hanger #7. "B" Wing Side of Airport

Time: 1715 Hours

Date: Two Weeks Prior

* * *

The last airport shuttle out of a small convoy of several others, came to a halt at its second to last stop at Tokonosu Airport Maintenance Hanger #6 "B" Wing, to drop off its load of maintenance mechanics and office personnel for the overnight shift.

As soon as this group was unloaded, the shuttle would drop of the last eight workers at Maintenance Hangar #7, or "Purgatory" as many of the workers liked to call it. Located one quarter mile up the road from Hanger #6, it was an assignment most were glad to not have drawn.

Hangar #7 was often used when the other maintenance hangers were over filled with downed planes in need of repair of some sort or whenever specialized work was required that would put too much of a strain on the other mechanics and required extended periods of down time. All such overfill was then handled by Hangar #7.

In between Hangar #7 and Hanger #6 were a fleet of light aircraft parked awaiting maintenance, or for pick-up after the repairs were completed by their respective owners or corporations that owned them. The distance from the airport and the hangar's isolated location at the furthermost end of the "Floating Island" also contributed to making it a place few wanted to be assigned.

As the passengers filed out of the shuttle, and the driver closed the doors behind them, the shuttle drove off in a belch of diesel smoke as the driver then continued his route to drop off his remaining passengers and then start the long process of picking up workers retiring from the day's shift, and transporting them to the dock to await the ferry returning its load of tired workers home.

As the mechanics filed into the hangar, there were the usual conversations between friends, and some of the female office workers were also happily chatting amongst themselves.

One of their number however, was not feeling very sociable, as one of his friends suddenly noticed his unusual behavior.

* * *

"Hey, Jiro, you allright?" he asked a little concerned.

"I'm feeling a little tired, but I'm ok." His friend said, his brow wet with sweat.

"You sure? You look a little pale." His friend insisted. "You wanna call in sick? We can cover."

"No, I'm fine, I used too much sick leave when I had the flu. I'll just get some tea and pop a couple aspirin and I'll be OK." He said with a weak smile on his face.

The man suddenly experienced a coughing fit and covered his mouth with his hand on which a large adhesive bandage was wrapped on the top of his right hand.

"Hey! What happened to your hand?" his friend asked, slightly alarmed at seeing the large bandage.

"Aww, it's nothing, some drunk grabbed ahold of me when I was at the subway, and I had to punch him in the face to get him off me." The injured worker replied, wiping his mouth.

"The guy just wouldn't let go." He continued. " One of the cops stationed there grabbed him and wanted me to stay and file a complaint, but I didn't want to be late for work so I beat it out of there."

"So how did you hurt your hand?" His friend asked.

" I cut one of my knuckles on that jerk's teeth when I punched him." The man replied. "It bled a bit, but one of the ferry workers put this bandage on it. It really isn't that bad. The bandage is just so big though, it just looks worse than it really is.''

"Well, ok, just remember to let us know if you need a break." His friend said as they walked through the door leading into the locker room.

"I'll do that." the sick man said as he closed the door behind them.

* * *

Time: 2230 Hours

Location: Hangar #7 "B" Wing

* * *

"Sorry Jim, I asked them again, but they won't send any coffee here. Your just gonna have to live with soda or tea." The big man with the dark brown beard wearing a black polo and khaki BDU pants yelled from across the hanger.

"CRAP!" I said disappointed yet AGAIN, while the rest of the group of men lounging around the stacks of pallets around me were laughing at my frustration. "Doesn't anybody in the Pacific drink anything but tea?" I groused.

Don't get me wrong, I like tea, just not a big fan of the herbal stuff except for when I have a head cold.

My idea of great tea that I absolutely love is good old-fashioned Texas sweet tea. Black tea, brewed in the sun, with just the right amount of sugar on a hot day.

Oh yeah, awesome stuff.

That and coffee are my drinks of choice, my guilty pleasures. Of course, ya gotta watch out for some of the local places back home that put so much sugar in their tea, it almost resembles pancake syrup, but whenever summer comes around, nothing says Texas like slow-cooked BBQ and sweet tea,…and breakfast tacos, especially my two favorites, carne guisada with cheese and papas con huevo(eggs) .

Yup, good old-fashioned Tex-Mex cooking.

Dang it, now I'm hungry too.

* * *

Ever since we left our training grounds back in Nevada, I'd been dying for a decent cup of coffee and a lot of it had to do with the flight itself.

The aircraft that the private security company I was currently employed with, Laidlaw Security International, was an old Russian job, bought after the Cold War as surplus, and then refurbished for use as a cargo plane.

When Laidlaw bought the thing, it was pretty beaten up already, but the shape of the plane and the price was good enough for the relatively new Private Security Company founded by a bunch of former Spec Ops guys.

And as the demand for private security contractors skyrocketed, the plane, like the men, had been pushed pretty hard to fill the need.

Being made up of former Military, most of these guys were used to the creaking, groaning, shrieking, thumping and bumping of the old aircraft.

Myself, being the newbie on board, and the only guy who had never set foot on a plane before I got hired with this company, well, I'm not ashamed to say.

I was scared shitless.

Being an old ex-military cargo plane and not a commercial passenger bus, I really didn't expect much in the way of comfort.

But as we flew over the warm waters of the Pacific and encountered those thermal updrafts I'd always heard about in the news after a plane crash, I was just happy that we managed to stay in the air and not come crashing down into the sea.

Of course, everyone laughed at my fear, but damn, I wanted a cup of coffee BAD when we finally reached the coast of Japan to settle my nerves.

Originally, we were supposed to land at Tokyo International to refuel and hopefully, see a few sights, but as we were coming up north, one of the engines caught fire.

Declaring a Mayday, Glenn our pilot, formerly with the U.S. Army's 160th S.O.A.R. Regiment, the Nightstalkers, touched down at Tokonosu International built on a small island off the coast of Japan.

On closer inspection once we were towed to a maintenance hangar, it was determined that #2 port engine had some mechanical failure that was repairable, but significant enough to require having the engine removed to replace the part and then re-install the whole engine.

The company of course, wanted us to press on to meet the deadline of our "contract." So as soon as the engine was repaired and all was in working order, we were to go wheels up without my ever setting foot on the country of Japan, a place the inner otaku in me always wanted to visit.

And if that wasn't bad enough, being a bunch of "mercenaries," the airport authorities placed us as far away from the main hangar and as far away from any other human contact or coffee urn as it is humanly possible to do so on an island.

Then they made us wait in the hangar, under guard, for the duration of the repair, which was now in its sixteenth hour after awaiting FIVE hours for the mechanics to finish maintenance on a Bell 214ST helicopter used to ferry maintenance crews from the airport to the Mainland.

The hours of boredom and the ugly looks from the Japanese mechanics and security people didn't make my first welcome to Japan all that memorable either.

Of course, it was something I needed to get used to.

The ugly looks and suspicious reactions were all part of the job. Employed in places were Americans are disliked if not vehemently hated, I really couldn't expect bright smiles, open arms and warm fuzzy hugs where I was going. Not that I wasn't used to that in a small part already.

There are some places even in my own home state I don't venture alone.

* * *

"They got great coffee where we're going Jimbo. Of course, it might give you the shits for a week." J.R., the bearded fellow said with a grin.

"Thanks Boss, I'll remember to use the head in your quarters if I drink any." I shot back.

J.R. Wallace, was former Delta and the leader of GREEN team, with Chris Adkins another former Delta trooper as his second in command, and leader of BLUE team.

And in my opinion, he was good people, extremely popular with the guys in the company back home as well as having earned a good name for himself in the Spec Ops world. A lot of the guys told me I lucked out in getting on his crew.

Intelligent, confident, a pure professional as most SF guys usually are, I grew to like the guy pretty much from the start. I've worked under the command of many men, and while most were good men to work for there were only a few that I've really come to genuinely trust and respect, and J.R. was one of them.

When it comes to the world of private security, most of the big name companies hire only the biggest, brightest, strongest, most experienced cream of the crop guys they can from former Delta, Green Berets, SEAL Team, Rangers, PJ's and the Nightstalkers.

When Laidlaw made it known they were in the hiring process, they extended their hand out to these same individuals in the hope of firmly establishing their status in the International Security game.

And they did succeed in getting some excellent people to work for their company, and with their ballooning success, were in desperate need of more as the contracts started to pour in. So once again they put the word out to their fellow elite.

But they were all busy, so instead they called me.

* * *

Not that Laidlaw was a bad company or financially unstable for that matter. There were plenty of contracts out there to be had.

But as a company just starting out on its own, they couldn't compete with the big boys just yet. Not that they didn't have a great bunch of people to begin with. And most of Laidlaw's operators knew a lot of guys that would have been great assets for the company.

But competition was fierce, and the benefits and pay offered by the big boys was too good to pass up for most people.

What they were really short on at Laidlaw, was experienced medics for their teams.

There were plenty of experienced PJ's out there as well as military medics for hire, but as prized as they were, the big boys were scooping up any and all they could find.

Every soldier in the military goes through medical training, even some advanced stuff like suturing and I.V therapy and lung decompression, especially the SF guys who are required to go behind enemy lines were no medevac can reach them if they get hit.

But being able to treat yourself in the field and then having a guy whose specialty is actually BEING a medic are two different things.

They did manage to snatch a few combat medics though, but as the company grew and recruits were getting harder to find, they started looking at other options.

And then evidently they hit rock bottom, so they gave me a call.

* * *

After 25 years of being a Firefighter/Paramedic, I was finally ready to call it quits with the Department I worked for, and after getting a letter and a phone call from J.R., I turned in my papers of retirement after I received official word from Laidlaw that I had been accepted for employment with their Private Security Company. To this day, I still can't believe it really happened.

Long story short, when I sent in my application to be a tactical medic for Laidlaw, with NO military experience, NO baptism by fire, No operational experience of any kind, AND being over 40 years old, which is an age when most guys are thinking of RETIRING out of the field. To be honest, I fully expected to never hear from them again.

I mean really, would you?

Three months later, I got the call.

HOLY CRAP.

* * *

When I stepped off the plane after my first flight ever from San Antonio to Las Vegas and got off the van at the undisclosed training grounds in Nevada, I expected to go through an ordeal similar to a young Marine recruit's first few moments stepping off the bus at Parris Island, and have some psychotic Drill Instructor screaming in my face and pushing my head in the sand with his boot.

Instead, I was made to feel extremely welcome on my arrival and treated with the utmost respect as I was introduced to the guys whom I'd be working with, as well as meeting the rest of the operators working for the company and the rest of the staff at Laidlaw.

I was then given a tour of the training facility and the barracks, and then after settling in and changing into tan BDU's and going through the normal pre- employment formalities, learning the history of the company, job requirements and physical tests. I was given a small tour of the Kill House.

And that's when my first real test occurred.

I knew all about Kill Houses. As a reserve tactical medic, I had trained with the SWAT guys when we practiced back home.

In some Police Departments though, the medic does NOT carry a weapon, which is a bad idea in my opinion, but is often times the case, and was the case where I worked. However, unlike a Kill House used by SWAT and a Kill House used by Special Operations. The SWAT Teams are not allowed to use live ammo and real live people standing in as hostages in their CQB training at the Kill House.

Not so with American Spec Ops and the SAS.

* * *

As I walked in the middle of the Kill House and was told to feel free to look around, J.R. excused himself to go to the head, and closed the door behind him as I looked around the simulated living room with old bullet riddled furniture, stand up targets and sand-filled tires lining the walls.

I had a feeling about what they were up to, but its one thing to mentally prepare yourself for something and then to actually experience it.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion as the door behind me, was breached with a small charge and knocked away with a terrific crash off to my right, and then three of the guys whom I'd just met a couple hours earlier entered the door behind me, dressed in combat vests and holding MP5's in their hands and started double-tapping the targets around me, all SIX of them each only a few feet away.

They didn't use a flash bang, thank goodness, but the dynamic shock and awe of the attack was enough to send anyone peeing in their pants and running home to mommy. As each of them finished their sweep of the room, yelling "CLEAR" as they did so, they then paused to look at me standing in the middle of the room as I stared blankly back at them. J.R. then silently walked in behind them with arms crossed, staring at my face.

I blinked at them for a second, turned my head and looked at the tight group of their shots on each target, and then flashed them the biggest grin I could and told them, with my ears still ringing.

"Guys. THAT WAS SO F_CKING COOL! PLEASE tell me your gonna teach me to do that?!"

Needless to say, I made some of the toughest men on earth laugh that day, and made some good friends as well. AND,….. hopefully a halfway decent impression of myself,…hopefully.

* * *

The next six months were tough, and I can't even bgin to tell you how tough it was.

Because if I did, then I'd have to kill you.

But I can say this much, there was a LOT to learn about working with these guys and I pushed my old, tired, beat-up body to do so.

The list of things I had to learn was extensive, and what they taught me barely scratched the surface of the things they knew, I'm sure.

Small unit tactics, reconnaissance, weapons training, small explosives training, breaching, IED recognition, ambushes, night ops, days ops, tactical driving, room clearing, rappelling, fast-roping, helicopter ops, emergency care in the field, communications, spotting for the sniper whom I was paired up with, and lots, and lots, of target shooting.

And that's just a small part of the stuff I was taught.

I was NOT being trained to be a commando per say, but I was being given enough basic training in those skills to at least be able to function with them so that they were at least comfortable with my being there as a medic if things went south.

Kind of like a probie fireman being put on an elite Rescue Squad.

Doesn't have the proper training or experience and doesn't really belong at all, but he's all you got and he'll either get up to speed real quick or die.

I knew the basics of what they wanted at least and could contribute instead of just being dead weight, but I was in NO WAY equal to their level.

I never knew 100% why they hired me in the first place, instead of pushing to find an experienced combat medic from somewhere, but I wasn't gonna push the subject.

For me, it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I wasn't going to quit or fail, so help me.

Now, here I was, part of a team made up of former commandos, a shit-hot former military pilot, and one 44 year old beat-up former firefighter/paramedic enroute to some isolated area in the country of Africa by way of a westerly route, because we couldn't get permission to fly over certain airspace, so (thank you very much you pricks) we had to take the long way, in the opposite direction with a grueling two day stopover( in oh, so horrible Hawaii), and were now stewing in a hangar in Japan waiting to get our plane fixed.

And what was our highly covert and equally dangerous mission?

We were "to escort some engineers along certain pipelines in Africa and protect them from locusts, snakes and scorpions" according to J.R.

This was my first OP with the team, and since I wasn't an actual Operator, but a fill-in medic, the only missions that I was allowed to go on in this company, would be in locations that were not "hot", so to speak.

Still, even though it was a far cry from the normal image that most people have about the world of Special Operations, inside though, I felt like a probie fireman all over again.

Scared to death at setting foot into a new unknown world, but euphoric at the same time that I was starting a new exciting life amongst the type of men I had greatly admired since my youth.

It was too awesome for words.

" Just wish there was some damn coffee around here." I grumbled, was my only complaint so far.

* * *

"It's gonna be awhile before they finish up boys, so might as well sack out if you can." said Glenn, our pilot.

"How long?" asked Steve, the team sniper and former Australian SAS trooper that I had been paired up with.

"Two weeks." J.R. said straight-faced.

He was joking of course. It was a joke amongst all of us in the company, that if you had a dilemma of some sort, the answer was always "two weeks" until there would be a solution.

It was a joke from a movie called "The Money Pit." Where the joke throughout the entire movie was that when the homeowner, played by actor Tom Hanks, asked when the repairs to their house would be finished, the answer was always "two weeks" by the construction company foreman on a job that actually took several months to finish. Guess you had to see the movie to appreciate the joke.

There were already a few guys stretched out on the pallets around us, and since there really wasn't much we could do or anyplace we could go under the watchful eyes of the two airport rent-a-cops watching us, I decided to follow his advice and stretched myself out over a bed of plastic pallets and bubbly wrap. And under the bright lights of the maintenance hangar, I passed right out.

* * *

At 0430 in the morning, after working several consecutive hours straight as soon as he had reported to work, forty-eight year old Hideki Matsura, a 22 year mechanic with the airport, wiped his brow and lay his tools on the bench next to him. He was one of eight mechanics working the graveyard shift in this hangar, and after several hours of hard-pressed work to finish the repairs on the plane and hurry the American mercenaries off Japanese soil, Matsura decided he had earned a smoke break, while his younger work mates helped themselves to some soft drinks from the vending machine. He told them he'd be back shortly, and walked toward the locker room where his smokes were on the other side of the hangar.

As he passed the Americans sleeping on the pallets near the entrance to the locker room, he nodded his head to the guard standing watch over the Americans and walked through the door.

Opening his locker, he grabbed his pack of cigarettes, and then went out the side entrance leading to the back of the hangar and lit up.

Enjoying the smooth tobacco he stood against the hangar wall facing the auxiliary roads leading to the maintenance section of the airport and stared out over the sea to the twinkling lights of the city of Tokonosu on the Mainland.

"Damn Americans." He grumbled. "Bunch of cowboys, shooting their guns and causing trouble everywhere they go. Why don't they just stay home and mind their own damn business and quit bothering people?"

As he blew out a long stream of smoke from his lungs and it cleared on the misty early morning air, he noticed a shadow that looked like a man walking in the dark, along the side of the road.

"Odd" he thought. What's he doing out here all alone? The next shift's not till six. There shouldn't be anybody else out here. "

As Matsura was finishing his smoke and watching the stumbling man moving towards him, the lights in the parking lot and the hangars dimmed. That was nothing new, they had been having trouble before, and the electrical guys seemed completely inept at fixing the problem.

Something about trouble with the new components in the power grid or whatever, was their excuse, so power outages, while rare and definitely not welcome at an airport as busy as this one, was not real cause for alarm as far as Matsura was concerned.

However, as the man came closer to one of the streetlights in the road about 150 feet away, he noticed the man was moving in a stumbling, lurching type gait and it almost sounding like he was moaning.

"Great." thought Matsura. "The guy's drunk."

"Hey!" He shouted. "What's wrong with you?! What the hell are you doing out here drunk?"

The man seemed not to hear him and continued on his way.

"Hey!" I'm talking to you stupid!" Matsura yelled, then angrily started to walk towards the man to see who was stupid enough to arrive drunk for his shift. As he angrily walked towards him, the man suddenly seemed to hear Matsura's angry shouts and slowly turned to face him, but didn't move.

"Are you drunk or just an idiot?!" Matsura yelled as he was about 20 meters from the man and then the lights suddenly blinked out.

"Aw, hell." He grumbled, now what?" After a moment, the auxiliary generators kicked on with a weaker pale glow inside the hangar, but the lights outside the hangar remained dark.

"Dammit." He cursed. "Can't those maintenance guys get this crap taken care of finally?"

He cursed as he fished in his coveralls for the small torch he used to inspect the inside of plane engines with, and after fishing it out, clicked the switch on the tail cap. A bright beam of light shined from the little light as Matsura aimed it at the hangar and the alongside the rest of the buildings.

Hearing footsteps and the moans of the man he had been yelling at earlier, Matsura shined it on the shadow that was now only a few feet away from him.

As the light settled on the man's head, Hideki Matsura was stunned to see the man's face as the light fully illuminated the man's features.

Matsura's lips quivered, making the cigarette stub still smoking in his mouth fall to the ground, as the man's hands reached for him.

* * *

For many years, sleep has always been a problem for me, even on my day off, I don't sleep well.

Ask any Paramedic anywhere, and they'll agree to be experiencing the same problem. The years of running all night, stress, copious amounts of coffee, stress, bad food, stress, paranoia, stress, ( ya'll notice a pattern?) will play hell on your ability to sleep, even after the shift is over.

PTSD, Sleep Deprivation, Stress Overload, are some terms often used to describe the condition.

Personally I've always liked "Paramedic Paranoia" to describe it myself.

The job will do that to you.

After thirteen years of being on a "box", I switched over to the Fire side, which is what I had wanted to do all along, but my screwed up sleep patterns still followed me.

We don't get as many calls as our EMS brethren, but brother, when you get a fire of any sort, you work your ass off.

Working in what's basically a full body quilt, sucking air out of a limited air supply like a scuba diver, and having to control your breathing so you don't suck it up before you reach the fire or die from suffocation, whichever comes first, while still carrying 100 pounds of equipment and a 200 foot section of inch and three quarter line flowing water at 150 psi.

AND, while having to work in your gear that's now raising your body temp to well over the human tolerance of being susceptible to heat stroke from your own body heat as well as from the 1500 degree heat burning over your head, and then having to search for victims and not get killed from a building collapse, thermal burns, explosions, backdraft, etc.

Oh, and then you get to help out EMS too.

But I loved it all, and I always will. It was hard leaving a life and a job I loved so much. But then again, at the time, I had good reason to.

* * *

So after years of being blasted awake by the tones going off, and the lights automatically coming on and shining brightly in your face after being jolted awake from REM sleep will mess you up eventually. As a result, Paramedics and Fireman have the worst sleep patterns in the business.

IF, they can get any sleep at all that is.

Even on their days off, you still can't get enough sleep before the next shift comes around.

And that pattern continues well after retirement from what I hear. I guess it just gets permanently imprinted in your brain. I haven't been able to shake it so far and it's been a year since I retired.

As a result, for many years before I turned in my badge, and even now, I still can't fall asleep before midnight, most of the time. And when I do, I usually wake up several times during the night.

My sleep pattern normally, is to fall asleep by 2330 at the earliest, and then waking up at 0130, 0300, 0500 and 0600 without a miss, unless I'm REALLY exhausted.

Then it's just 0130, 0300 and 0630.

There are guys with worse sleep patterns than my old whiny self, I know, but these are the times that I wake up, for no reason whatsoever. And it was like that even on my days off when I was in my own bed, in my own home, and no alarms to respond to.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it's part of the job. But for those of you wanting to do this for a living, you see some of the effects the job can put on you eventually.

Even with the jet lag, and my immediate crashing out at midnight, my sleep pattern still hadn't changed.

Yup, 0100 right on time, as I blinked my eyes and looked at my watch in the bright lights of the hangar and rolled over.

"See you at 0300." I said out loud to nobody in particular and promptly konked out again.

0300. Yup, right on schedule. I tossed and turned a bit, and finally fell back asleep after 10 minutes or so.

Like I said, it gets imprinted in you, and that's what I have to look forward to every night. Unless I'm awakened by something else at a different time, so at 0440 in the morning, in an aircraft maintenance hangar on an island-based airport off the Coast of Japan, it wasn't my screwed up sleep patterns that woke me up with a jolt.

It was a scream.

* * *

"What the hell was that?! yelled Patrick, the teams explosives expert who was sleeping in the next pallet over. We had all been startled awake by the sudden sound of someone screaming .

Except for J.R. and Glenn, the rest of us had been sacked out. Of course, now everyone was wide awake and on their feet looking around at each other as well as scanning our surroundings for any danger as well. I did a head count of all the guys myself.

"Nope, we're all here." I thought to myself. Then, I looked over at the rent-a-cop over at the wall. Nope, he's there too.

I glanced over towards the mechanics, who were looking pretty freaked out as they ran past us, and straight over to the guard speaking in very excited Japanese. I couldn't remember how many of those guys there were.

If this was part of an op and I needed to know how many potential threats, hostages, and so forth were around me, I would have flunked commando 101.

"What happened to the lights?" I asked out loud.

Instead of the extremely bright lights that had illuminated the hanger before, the glow of several smaller lights and the glow of the lights over the emergency exits were all that were on.

"They were blinking off and on a couple minutes ago, and then went out altogether." said J.R. who had been awake as we slept. He was already in defensive mode, as were the rest of the guys. People don't just scream for no apparent reason, and the lights going out?

That's a big red flag that something's just a wee bit out of the ordinary. Even my totally inexperienced self was in motion. When danger is present or even suspected, it's all hands on deck and everybody get "eyes on".

The mechanics meanwhile were trying hard to go check on their guy and the guard was trying even harder to calm them down.

The poor guy was in a bit of a bind at the moment. His job had been to keep an eyeball on our sorry butts, and now he had someone screaming in the back and no immediate back up. He was trying to keep the mechanics calm as they were starting to get agitated that he wasn't checking on their man, and preventing them from going outside as well.

To make things worse, he was getting no response on his portable radio as he kept attempting to call base for backup.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. A couple of the mechanics pushed past the frustrated guard and dashed through the locker room out towards the rear entrance. The poor guy was definitely getting towards his wit's end pretty quick. I half expected him to draw his weapon and start knee-capping people.

In an effort to try to smooth things over, J.R. , speaking in perfect Japanese to the guard, offered that we would all gladly go and check on his people if he was worried about leaving us unattended. The man seemed to ponder this for a moment, and then shook his head, his orders had been specific.

"The Americans DO NOT leave the restricted area, PERIOD." His Commander had ordered him.

Ah well, can't say we didn't try.

* * *

The sound of screaming from the two men that had just ran out the back door, took all the fire out of the guard's attempts to prevent us from checking on his people though. He drew his weapon and motioned J.R. to come with him.

J.R. looked over towards us and motioned for, Patrick, David who was our comms guy, and Steve, the team sniper that I had been paired with, and myself to follow.

"Bring your bag Jim." He said.

I had my med kit with me and I had already had it halfway slung over my shoulders when he was talking.

I always kept the thing near me. Not so much that we needed it all the time, I just had gotten in the habit of keeping it nearby just like every good medic should. Incidentally, even though I was the team medic, the guys hadn't used the time honored tradition of calling me "Doc" as most combat medics were often called.

It was nothing personal towards me, but since I was new and not military, they used my regular name. I wasn't offended either. I prefer people calling me "Jim" just like everyone else. I really didn't want to earn that particular name anyhow. Like all medics everywhere, I didn't want to see my buddies hurt or killed.

I'd have been happy to be called "Jim", "Old Man", or whatever, so long as the guys didn't need my services beyond a band-aid.

J.R. then left the rest of the guys with his right hand man Chris, another former Delta, and the four of us and the guard proceeded to go around towards the back, but through the front of the hangar instead of through the door in the locker room exit.

With our weapons locked away in the plane, the guard was the only one with a gun, so we weren't taking any chances.

As we skirted around the hangar wall, the guard took the point with the rest of us close behind and I was rear guard at the end of the line. There were no lights on outside in our immediate area, although the runway lights and most of the buildings near the main terminal seemed to be working fine.

As we quietly approached the back, the guard in front of us had his flashlight out and scanned the ground in front of us as we made our approach to the back of the hangar. We all had small Surefire flashlights in our hands, but we kept ours turned off.

I had learned from these guys that it was always best to stay in the shadows until something presented itself. No telling what we were walking into, and if someone was out here killing people, his first incentive would be to attack the cop with the light.

Seems kind of harsh to use the cop as bait that way, but unarmed as we were, it was the smart thing to do.

As we walked closer to the back of the hangar, I thought I heard the sound of slight splashing. Kinda like if someone had stepped in a puddle, then I heard a sound I'd heard plenty of times before in all my years as a medic, the sound of bone grating upon bone.

* * *

''What the hell?" I thought to myself, a little relieved thinking this might not be so serious after all. "Did all these guys just fall down in the dark and break a bone or something?"

Sounds ridiculous I know, but you'd be surprised how many times I've been to a construction site were one guy fell down and broke a leg, and then a bunch of other workers would end up getting injured falling down the same hole or trench trying to help their fallen buddy. Instead of one guy with a busted arm, now ya got three or four with all sorts of broken bones and other injuries needing to go the hospital.

Sounds like a skit in a comedy act, but it happens all the time believe me.

Of course, bone grating on bone is extremely painful, and no one was making any noise at all at that point. As the guard walked to the end of the hangar and searched the corner, and finding nothing, walked out past the hangar to the lot behind the hangar and scanned the space all around.

We were a few feet behind him and saw nothing in the glow of his flashlight. I was busy watching our rear as I heard a sudden gasp and a choking sound come from the guard, who then, from what it sounded like to me, started violently puking his guts out. The smell of blood was real strong by now as well as the smell of excrement, mixed with vomit.

"Someone is hurt really bad if I can smell that much blood, and if the pain was intense enough that someone had voided his bowels then he must be seriously injured." I thought.

I was waiting for J.R. to give me the all clear and the go ahead to start treating these people, but instead I heard a few sharp intakes of breath, and then the sudden reaction from the guys was much different than what I expected to hear.

WHAT THE F_CK?!" Patrick said behind me.

* * *

"TORCHES ON!" yelled J.R. As we all clicked the lights in our hands on, and scanned in all directions.

"OH SHIT!" I heard a couple of the guys say. I was trying really hard to avoid craning my neck to see what was going on that was upsetting them so much, but my job was to watch our rear, and if I turned around to stare, someone might sneak up on us. You get the idea.

I couldn't help myself though, and I asked out loud as I was really starting to get anxious at this point. "Hey guys? What the hell?!"

After not getting an answer, I was spooked that something was REALLY wrong for them to be that quiet when suddenly, I heard J.R.'s voice yelling "NO!" and then the guard who had just gotten over puking, suddenly fired four shots into the night.

Like I said, I'm not a combat soldier, just a fill in medic, so I did what all people normally do when someone shoots behind them. I ducked and looked around where the shots came from. I then saw what had made the guys react the way they did, and I did something else dumb. I stared, instead of turning back around and watching our back.

Dumb move, but then again, I guess I just couldn't help myself at the time. It's not something I've ever witnessed before, and I've witnessed some awful shit in my career.

The three workers were within a few feet of each other, more or less, and even then, I couldn't really tell if it was all three of them because they were no longer whole, but their bodies had been ripped to shreds. Anything not part of the main torso, was torn off.

The heads, arms, legs had been pulled from their sockets and the vital organs spilled on the ground. Blood was everywhere, which explained the strong smell, and in the midst of all that, were several men dressed in airport maintenance jumpsuits and women in office worker clothing, kneeling on the ground, completely covered in blood.

And as I watched, one of the women was gnawing on the face of a skull she was holding in her hands while the rest were gnawing on different body parts, each covered head to toe in gore.

I really am not the cussing type. Seriously, I'm not. I have let a few words slip over the years in cases of serious anxiety, but I avoid rough language normally. It's just not me.

Also, I've always prided myself on maintaining my composure on the scene of any fire or accident, and you can ask anyone I've ever worked with, I've always managed to keep it together, no matter how bad the situation or injuries were.

Matter of fact, the joke at work amongst the guys was that my catch phrase should be "Calm Down'', since I was always in the habit of telling everyone to calm down and not get too excited about the situation.

I'm not God's gift to the Service. But it doesn't make any sense for an emergency rescuer to be more panicked than the person they've come to help.

So I guess I was overdue for a good freak-out.

"WHAT THE F_CK?... OH SHIT!... WHAT THE,…..OH SHIT!"

* * *

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Honestly though, I just couldn't help myself, it's really not that often you see family night at the local airport back lot serving an all-you-can-eat human buffet with all the trimmings.

Still, I wish I had kept my composure a little better. I really hate sounding like an idiot in front of everyone.

The guard, quite understandably had freaked out at what he was seeing unfold before him and had fired four shots at the group enjoying their manwiches, dropping two of them to the ground right away, shot in the head. The others reacted from the impact of the guard's .38 caliber pistol, by raising their heads, mouths all covered in gore, AND THEN STOOD UP.

And to everyone's further astonishment, they started WALKING towards us.

The guard then fired his last round from his five shot revolver and hit one of the men in the chest, right where the heart should be. Perfect aim considering how shook up he was I thought. Instead of dropping to the ground dead though, the man shuddered, and CONTINUED walking towards us.

To say that we were stunned by what we had just witnessed would be an understatement, but that doesn't mean we were just standing there waiting to be served up as dessert either. J.R. had already grabbed the guard's arm and was pulling him away as the bloody bunch started to close in on us. I was looking behind us scanning the dark with my light as I saw a few more moving shadows just out of the range of the beam of light coming towards us.

"Contact Rear!" I yelled as Patrick and Steve spun around and looked back as well. As they peered into the dark past my beam of light, the lights of the parking lot and the hangars blinked back on.

"Oh, SHIT!" The guard said in horror, which under most circumstances, would have sounded almost comical since he had been speaking nothing but Japanese the whole time he'd been with us.

We didn't laugh though, every single one of us were thinking the same thing.

We had thought it was just a few people gone berserk and that only a few were left after the guard had killed two of them. Even the guy shot through the heart and not dead on the ground wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back.

It was the DOZENS of blood covered, slowly shuffling people in the back lot and in the roads coming from the airport that finally shook us up.

Well, that, and the fact that they were all headed our way.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?!" Glen yelled out loud after hearing the shots coming from the back of the hangar.

"Shit!" Chris, the leader of BLUE team said in frustration.

The rest of the American Security Force had been standing by just in case the four men had run into trouble. Not wishing to violate international law and break out their weapons and cause an international incident, most had stayed in the same spot since the group of men had left while a few others were back at the plane discreetly opening the sealed weapons cases on board, just in case.

After hearing the shots however, there was no time to screw around about offending the local government, and now as far as they were concerned, the legal stuff be damned.

"All of you, head to the plane and gear up!" shouted Chris.

The leader of BLUE Team then turned to the Japanese mechanics who were now completely frozen in fear.

"COME ON! He yelled at them, grabbing and pushing them towards the plane. "LET'S GO! MOVE IT, MOVE IT!

The mechanics responded slowly at first, but recovered quickly from their shock and soon were closely behind the pack of men headed towards the cargo plane.

Chris hesitated, hoping to see his friends coming around the corner where they had disappeared, and started to head that direction, when suddenly, all five men blasted around the corner and at a dead run, headed for the plane.

* * *

"J.R.! What the F_CK is going on man! He yelled as the big man ran up to him at a dead run.

"GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!" J.R. was yelling at everyone in the hangar as he ran. "Move it Chris! They're right behind us! HAUL ASS!"

"WHO'S BEHIND YOU FOR F_CK'S SAKE?!" Chris said as we all passed the helicopter in the middle of the hangar.

"F_CKING ZOMBIES MAN! NO BULLSHIT! RUN!" J.R. roared over his shoulder.

If not for the fact that the men were running as if death were on their heels, the leader of the second team would have stopped in his tracks believing this was all a joke.

* * *

I'm no long distance runner, and a matter of fact, running long distances is literally my achilles heel. I get shin splints really badly. And the time it really hurt me the worst was when I tried hard to get into a big city Fire Department like Houston Fire or San Antonio F.D.

Problem was during the running tests, I pushed myself way too hard to run in the allotted time with the end result being that wherever I went, I smelled like Ben-Gay for the next six months while my legs healed. Funny story, but unfortunately true.

When J.R. gave the order to run, I was still carrying my med-pack over my shoulders which is a BlackHawk STOMP II kit that when fully loaded, easily weighs over 65 pounds. Pretty hard for me to carry on a long distance run that I've never had to do before.

Now short distance sprinting with that pack on? Not a problem.

And I assure you, I certainly had no trouble at all keeping up with the guys in our balls-to-the-wall run back to the plane, pack and all. And I probably would have beat them all back to the plane too, if I hadn't been so worried about looking like a coward, and purposefully slowed down a bit.

* * *

"WHAT! YOU SLOWED DOWN BECAUSE YOU FELT LIKE A COWARD?!" all of you are probably thinking.

Hey, what can I say? Firemen are USED to running TOWARDS the danger, not AWAY from it.

Of course, then again, what we were running away from back there wasn't exactly someone's cat stuck up in a tree either.

* * *

As I ran up the loading ramp into the cargo hold of the plane, some of the guys had already broken the seals on the cargo containers where our weapons were stored and everyone was busy donning gear and listening to J.R.s story of what we had seen behind the hangar, as well as reacting to the crazy sound of it all.

And then realizing that this really was no bullshit, they then finally began to understand the dangerous situation that we were now in.

If it hadn't been the fact that all four of us had witnessed the horror coming at us, I'm pretty sure they would have hog-tied the lot of us and locked us away.

But as incredible as our story sounded, nobody had attempted to stop donning their gear and weapons in a great big hurry.

For most operations that the guys were contracted to most of the time, the weapons used for the operation were often provided by the client, especially in some of the poorer third world countries were weapons such as the AK-47 were plentiful, and none of the international laws and other legal hoops had to be hurdled in order for the contract to be fulfilled.

It usually worked out pretty well that way since most SOF guys are intimately familiar with weapons of various nations, and the same weapon could be substituted in the field in case of malfunction, by picking one off a fallen enemy. And since the ammo and magazines were all the same, it made re-supply a lot easier than transporting our own arms from home.

On this Operation however, the company had made it possible for us to take our own weapons with us. Using local weapons in another country to accomplish a mission is useful and makes a lot of things easier. But being able to use your own weapon that you've customized to suit your needs and is the same weapon you train and fight with all the time and have gotten used to is ALWAYS preferable.

As a result, we had all our personal weapons with us on this jaunt, and fortunately, as was standard procedure if we were going to be transporting our weapons with us, all of the magazines we carried for our weapons were loaded. You never know when you'll have to come out of a plane under fire.

Never thought I'd be gearing up to engage killer zombies in Japan though.

* * *

"Why couldn't it have been a Gojira attack instead?" I thought using humor to mask my fear. "That would have been way cooler and NO WAY could anyone NOT see that coming!"

The mechanics were looking at all the big scary Americans donning combat vests and stuffing pockets with magazines and pulling carbines out of their cases and loading them up with a distinct sense of dread.

The cargo hold of the plane was filled with sound of charging handles on carbines and pistol slides being racked, which I'm sure, only added to their anxiety.

I saw just how scared they were. None of them had any idea what had just happened to their buddies and the guard with them was a little freaked out as well watching us gear up while he was still holding an empty pistol.

I turned to the guard and the mechanics and told them in what little Japanese I remember from my otaku days.

"OY. Kitte yo. Watakushi-tachi , tomodachi des. Daijobu des. Wakarimasu ka?" I managed to stammer.

I hoped I was telling them. "Hey. Listen to me. We're friends. It's OK. Understand?" But it had been so long since I last spoke in Japanese, I might have been telling them to go play tamagochi or something.

I guess I said something right, because they seemed to relax a bit.

Feeling a little more encouraged, I tried speaking a little more. I pointed to the guard and said,

"Anata-wa. (You) Hanashite. (Speak) And then I pointed to the mechanics and said. Anata-tachi (Them) Bake-mono. (Monster). Mo Sugu. (Soon) Ikimasho (We Leave).

The confused stares on their faces told me they had no clue as to what I was talking about.

But then a light bulb went off in the guards head and he realized I wanted him to tell them about the monsters and that we were planning to beat feet as soon as we loaded up. I'm glad they caught it, because I needed to gear up as well and I was wasting time, but I really couldn't help but try to help calm their fears seeing how scared they were at seeing us all so heavily armed.

The guard knew about the danger we had just seen, but for all the mechanics knew, they were being held hostage by international terrorists.

Seeing as how we were made up of guys whose job had been to FIGHT terrorism the irony was just too much.

Ain't that a kick in the head?

* * *

I doffed my med-pack and handed it to one of the mechanics, a young kid who was about 20, but looked closer to 12. I then went to the container and grabbed my rifle case and unzipping it, pulled out my Mark 18 carbine and combat vest.

We all carried three or four different bags for each man, each particular to each man's job and needs.

Each of us carried a gear bag with all of our personal items, a range bag that carried our rifles, vests and magazines, and a SHTF bag that carried a little bit of everything for when the Shit Hits The Fan. And of course, being the medic, I also had my medical pack.

I quickly donned my vest, and then attached my thigh holster to my right leg, pulling the pistol out of it and racked the slide loading a round, and then placed it back in the holster and snapped it in. I then pulled my SCUBA/DEMO knife out of the bag and strapped it to my right calf.

I looked over at the guard and the mechanics and taking a double magazine set up out of the range bag, I slapped it in the magwell of my carbine and pulled back the charging handle. I nodded to them and gave them a faint smile, trying to reassure them.

* * *

I then grabbed my large SHTF pack and carried it over to where the Japanese stood still staring at us, and handed it to the stoutest looking one of the mechanics.

It was an Eberlestock Operator pack the exact same that Steve, the sniper on my team, carried.

In it I had a little bit of everything, a spare set of clothes, food, a camelbak for drinking water on the go, extra ammo, survival supplies, an extra, smaller med pack attached to the outside of the pack by MOLLE straps and an Remington 700 short action sniper rifle in .308 caliber, based on the U.S, Army's M24 sniper rifle system that I carried in the internally attached rifle scabbard.

It weighed a ton as fully packed with supplies as it was.

Since Steve was the sniper, and always carried his rifle with him, there really was no need for me to bring mine, but Steve had promised to teach me to shoot and so I had brought it along.

Still, my primary job was being the medic, and so I really needed to be wearing the med-pak which I donned, after retrieving it from the young mechanic I had passed it to earlier.

I patted the kid on the shoulder and activated the Eotech sight on my carbine and peered through it to make sure it was on.

"Allright. Listen up!'' yelled J.R. so we all could hear.

"The plane's down so we can't just fly out of here, and we can't contact anybody by radio for some reason, probably from interference off the buildings, unless zombie's have learned how to use scrambling equipment. " He said holding up the guard's portable radio.

"I sent Glenn and Jerry out to the chopper to check and see if they can get the radio working. Hopefully we can call for help and just hold out till help arrives. We can also try to make a run for it to one of those other hangars or even all the way to the Main Terminal, but it's a long hump all alone out there and we don't know how many of those things are out walking around, or if maybe the whole airport is compromised." He said grimly.

"How about the sat phone boss?" Asked Patrick.

"I tried. They hung up on me." J.R. said sheepishly as we all laughed.

"Chris is still trying, though." J.R. said, pausing to look at Chris who had started cursing at the phone.

"What?" He asked.

"They put me on f_cking "HOLD", man!" Chris said practically screaming.

"Great, next they'll ask for a credit card number." I said sarcastically, recalling an event that actually happened to some U.S. Paratroopers, and was mimicked in the movies "Heartbreak Ridge" and "Transformers."

"Keep trying bro." J.R. said shaking his head. "Our only other option is to fly the chopper out of here and continue to try to make contact with the tower or make a break for the mainland and hand ourselves over to the authorities."

All of us grunted at that option.

While we were only trying to keep ourselves and the Japanese nationals with us alive, our snatching them from the airport, while heavily armed, possibly having to discharge our weapons on friendly soil, stealing a helicopter, flying over Japanese airspace and quite a few other violations I'm sure we were going to be involved in, spelled out international incident no matter how you looked at it.

Our concerns over being locked up in a Japanese jail cell became moot though when Glenn and Jerry ran up to the ramp, their faces white.

"Boss, we got problems." Glenn said, trying to catch his breath.

Alarmed, J.R. walked over, followed by the rest of us.

"What's up?" he asked.

"We got multiple contacts, ALL OVER the tarmac." Jerry said, his carbine to his shoulder, the muzzle pointed out towards the runway.

As we all looked out the ramp and through the small windows on the side of the plane, we could see just beyond the glow of the hangar lights, dozens of slowly moving figures moving towards us from the runway itself , and not just from behind the hangar where we had just run from.

But, from ALL directions.

The seriousness of our situation hit us like a ton of bricks.

We were surrounded.

And we had run out of time.

* * *

Update 7-1-2013

I was going back through these chapters of mine and doing some re-editing of all my chapters when I came to this one today.

Originally, when I wrote this chapter, the character of J.R. Wallace, the leader of "GREEN Team" was based on two men I admired.

One, was a former Fire Chief I once had the honor and the privilege of serving under, and I can honestly say, he was the best boss I ever had, and no one else has ever come close.

The other man was Chris Kyle, former SEAL Team 3 Sniper and a fellow Texan who was tragically killed here in Texas recently.

I never met Chris, but he was the person I was thinking of when I made up the character of J.R. Wallace originally, mostly because of his autobiography and he was exactly the person that came to mind when I pictured what the "Boss" of "GREEN Team" would look like.

Chris was not a PMC, but he did have a company here in Texas where he trained Military and Law Enforcement.

Reading through this chapter again today, reminded me of him as I re-edited this chapter.

My fanfic doesn't even compare to his own autobiography that he wrote about his life and career, but because I based my character on him, I wanted to dedicate this chapter to his memory.

I sincerely hope none of his friends and family mind me dedicating this chapter to him.

So if his family and his brothers in the Teams don't mind, this chapter is for you Chris.

Rest in peace friend.

Hooyah.

* * *

Authors Notes:

One of the biggest problems I had in trying to write this story is that, unlike some stories where the hero magically has an arsenal at his disposal that he somehow slipped through Customs and is now running through Japan, a country with some of the strictest gun laws in the world, without anyone trying to detain him while he shoots every zombie in sight was a bit of a challenge for me.

In trying to make this fictional story somewhat realistic even though it really is fantasy, my biggest challenge was, what would an American Firefighter be doing in Japan, other than being on vacation, and how would he be able to arm himself short of stealing weapons from the police or military?

It was then I got the idea for the "private security contractor" theme.

Firefighters, believe it or not, do indeed get hired overseas, especially paramedics to work at DOD bases and airports and oil rigs. However, I don't know of anyone who would be employed by any of the "private security companies" that exists today. The job is too risky to say the least. However, as you will see in the upcoming chapters, there are other reasons why I chose this angle.

Again, this is a work of fiction, so I hope any of you military folks reading this don't offended by what your reading so far. Again, stolen valor is not my thing at all.

By the way, for everyone that's a paramedic or firefighter or familiar with the name Laidlaw. Yes, it's an inside joke towards that parent company of a certain private ambulance service that I worked for, for 3 ½ years.

I'll be working on the next chapter now. Take care!


	6. Chapter 5- While The Children Slept

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."

Mark Twain

* * *

Last Alarm

Chapter Five

While The Children Slept

* * *

In a modest home, in a quiet neighborhood on an even quieter night, seventeen year old Takashi, family name Komuro, tossed and turned in his futon. He had slept little staying awake well into the night, before fatigue inevitably set in and he dozed off. His sleep was a troubled one however. His slumber interrupted with subconscious thoughts of anger, pain, jealousy, and bitterness that plagued his dreams and robbed him of sleep. His only thoughts that day were the thoughts that plague most young teenage boys his age.

A young, beautiful teenage girl his age, of course.

And with the image of her beautiful face taunting his dreams, feelings of sadness swept through his subconscious mind and the sad memory of a childhood promise that had been made long ago interrupted his dreams. A treasured promise that had now been broken, and his heart along with it.

* * *

We were surrounded on all sides.

We were alone and there was no telling if anyone at the airport knew of our situation out here.

And now, we were out of time.

AND, out of options.

Meh.

* * *

You have to admit, if anyone ever found themselves in a situation where you're completely surrounded by hordes of hostile enemy's intent on killing you no matter what, and you were cut off from any nearby escape route, and no cavalry is coming up over the horizon to save the day.

Well then being in the company of a bunch of men used to working behind enemy lines, all alone, and constantly dealing with difficult situations, while having to move and think fast on the run,…..well, suffice to say, I don't think I could have been in better hands.

Of course, I wouldn't have minded having a couple of A-10's making a strafing run with their 30mm cannons , and a napalm run or two would have been pretty nice about now.

Ah well.

* * *

Unlike what you see on the movie screen, Spec Ops guys don't act all billy-bad-ass and go looking for trouble.

They do their job aggressively, sure, but they do it SMART, and that's what separates them from the Hollywood fantasy heroes you see on the big screen.

So when we saw all those slowly moving figures moving up on our position, we didn't circle the wagons and hope to hold off who knows how many of these things there were until the cavalry arrived.

If it EVER arrived that is, they still had Chris on "HOLD."

Nor were we gonna try to do something stupid like try to run through all of them out there with guns blazing.

Looks cool in the movies, but it would have been suicide with our limited supply of ammo that we carried on our person, and no telling how far we would have to run before we were clear of these things, or if there was even a place we could find on this island that was clear of these things.

Nope, we went for "Plan B", the option none of us really cared for, but at this point was surely better than waiting around to become zombie chow.

Actually, there really wasn't much of a choice at all. When you can't go right or left, and you can't go back or forward either. Your only other choices are up or down.

We chose going UP.

* * *

"Glenn, we need to chopper out of here fast, how's it look?" J.R. asked, pulling back the charging handle of his carbine.

"The chopper's batteries are on charge, and the bird's hooked up to the tug." Glenn replied.

" From what I could see, it looks good to go." He continued. "We do need to clear the hangar before I start her up though. Way too much crap that can go flying around if I tried to take off in here no matter how big this hangar is."

"You mind asking those fella's if the bird's good to go? My Japanese is a bit rusty." Glenn added, looking at the mechanics who were staring at us in fear.

"I know the feeling Glenn." I thought to myself. "Shoulda never sold my anime collection."

* * *

A few of the guys were outside of the plane watching our perimeter and covering our backs as the rest of us quickly finished gearing up, all of us still watching the slowly moving figures approaching our position.

Inside the plane, J.R. motioned to the mechanics and the guard to come over to him and as they did, he asked them in very-fluent Japanese, the flight status of the helicopter.

They then started talking very excitedly and then began nodding their heads vigorously that the repairs to the hydraulic system of the chopper were done, and it was awaiting a final check-out flight by the pilot, which was scheduled for the morning shift.

"No time like the present." Glenn grumbled.

Hell of a thing, taking off in an aircraft that's flight status is questionable, but there was no choice in our present situation.

I watched J.R. then further explain to them, as I tried to listen along, that we were all going to leave in the helicopter, and that while both teams covered them, they needed to pull the chopper out with the tug, and then all of us would take off together and try to make contact with the tower, or bug out to the mainland, to which they nodded their heads in agreement.

At this point, I'm pretty sure they didn't give a rat's ass where we were going, so long as it was away from HERE.

"That's it then." J.R. said looking at Chris still holding the phone, and obviously from the frustrated look on his face, still placed "ON HOLD".

"We're gonna cover the Japanese while they clear the chopper from the hangar. Once they clear the tug from the skids and Glenn winds her up we're oughtta here, AGREED?" He said looking over everyone's faces. There were a few quick nods from all of us.

"Any questions?" J.R. asked out loud.

There were no questions from any of us, but the guys had no problems hearing any useful input from anyone just before going into action.

"Head shots ONLY guys." I said out loud, facing them as they turned to look at me. "Center of mass doesn't work with these things. The guard tried with a heart shot, and it only pissed them off."

There were no surprised looks from any of the guys, just nods of acknowledgment.

J.R. looked at me for a second and nodded his head in approval, then looked back at Chris. "I'll take these three guys around the starboard side with us and you take the other three with you, OK?"

"Roger that." Chris said looking like he wanted to chunk the sat phone against the fuselage.

"Everybody get ready to move." J.R. barked as we all checked our weapons and prepared to move.

I grabbed the kid holding my SHTF bag and motioned to him to stay with me, while Patrick grabbed the security guard and David grabbed the third mechanic.

As we moved in position near the cargo door dragging the kid with me, I suddenly felt a pat on my right shoulder.

* * *

"You alright, Pappy?" the young blond-haired medic of BLUE team, a kid from San Diego named Ben asked me.

"I'm fine Mijo'. Just looking forward to landing on the front lawn of the Emperor's house and maybe help myself to some of his coffee before they toss us in jail." I said jokingly, tussling his spiky hair like he was a kid.

Truth was, oddly enough, the thirty year old former navy corpsman was actually MY mentor, when I first went through orientation here at Laidlaw. Despite his ultra, laid-back surfer boy personality, the kid was an extremely bright fellow and I found myself hard pressed to keep up with his medical expertise.

Your probably wondering , "Why did I , a 26-year veteran of Fire and EMS need a kid 14 years my junior teaching me anything?"

The fact is, Tactical Medicine is a specialized field requiring specialized training, and Ben, being a former navy corpsman attached to a Marine RECON unit had more experience in that field than I did. It would have been stupid of me to let my pride get in the way and not take advantage of his experience and know-how, no matter how much older I was.

Being a combat medic attached to a squad on a battlefield is worlds apart from being a Fire/Medic in a fire truck in the city.

I don't have a problem taking orders from anyone younger than me so long as they know what they're doing. And Ben definitely did, and I relied on him heavily to get myself up to speed on being the medic for GREEN team.

Ben was good people, and because we got along so well, a lot of the guys started taking jabs at us that we were like father and son.

After that, he started calling me "Pappy" and I started calling him "Mijo' " which is Tex-Mex for the Spanish phrase "Mi Hijo" which means my "son" or "boy".

"You ready?" he asked me as we were getting ready to move out.

"Yup." I said. "Be safe Mijo', see you on the other side." I said sincerely as we bumped fists.

"Just make sure you don't fall down and break your hip old man." He said as he walked toward the other guys in his team, laughing.

"Oh, I see how you are, ya little punk!" I said. I was laughing inside too though.

Truth is, I really was the old man of the bunch.

The two oldest guys next to me were J.R. and Glenn, both of them an ancient 42 years of age.

Truth is though, to look at me, you'd think I was younger.

I've been complimented by many people on how much I look like I'm in my mid-thirties when they're surprised to find out I'm actually 44.

Good genes I guess. Still got all my hair with just a few wisps of grey at the temples and I still have all my teeth and all my marbles working in my brain, so kiss my ass Ben.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of J.R.'s voice.

* * *

"MY team on me, starboard side of the chopper. Let's move!" he ordered, as we filed out of the plane carbines at our shoulder.

I was behind Steve and dragging the young mechanic carrying my SHTF pack, trying to keep pace with me on my left side, his hand gripping one of the straps of my med-pak so I could have both hands free, while the guard tried to keep in step while being dragged by Patrick also gripping the strap of his pack, both of them behind me.

"BLUE Team, on me, Port Side! Chris called out to his guys as they filed out of the plane with the other three Japanese men in tow.

As we moved out the rear cargo doors of the plane with our weapons at our shoulders with the muzzles up, we moved out and then formed up on the starboard side of the chopper.

I then motioned for the kid to stuff my bag under the last row of seats in the chopper, and after a couple hard shoves, he got it wedged underneath.

He then turned around to look at me, and I motioned for him to join his buddies who were using the tug to wheel the helicopter out of the hanger as we moved along with them, covering them as they wheeled it out past the hangar door and onto the tarmac enough for us to clear the building.

By this time though, the slowly lurching figures were too close to our position, and there was no way we could wait for Glenn to wind up the engines after the mechanics had removed the tug from underneath the the skids of the helicopter without having to open fire.

After the tug was removed, Glenn yelled at the Japanese to get on board and then started flipping switches to begin "start up" of the twin turbines of the big Bell Super Transporter while Jerry the co-pilot, did a quick check of the instruments.

The moment of truth had come for the rest of us though, and as the rotors started their lazy rotation, we all got down to one knee to avoid the possible dip of the main rotor, and prepared to fire.

As I tried to slow my breathing down and calm my rapidly pounding heart that was beating in overdrive, I turned to look at the glowing tritium hands of my watch.

* * *

0455.

It had only been 15 minutes since we were awakened by the screams of the mechanic being attacked.

It had seemed like a hundred years had passed already.

We had hoped to avoid at least one violation of international law by not firing a shot over someone else's sovereign territory. But sometimes diplomacy just has to take a back seat when it comes down to having to respond aggressively to an immediate danger to life and health.

They were pretty close now, and I took a breath to steady myself and flipped the selector lever on my carbine to "Fire" as I centered the red dot of the Eotech on a blood covered maintenance worker.

"DROP 'EM!" I heard J.R. and Chris yell, as the tarmac was instantly lit up with the flashes of gunfire from our weapons and shuffling bodies started to fall, as the whining of the helicopter's turbines started to shriek in our ears.

"Someone has GOT to notice all this commotion by now." I thought as I placed the red dot of my Eotech sight on the face of the same office girl I had seen earlier gnawing on that skull out behind the hangar, and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

Seventeen year old Rei Miyamoto lay in her futon in the pre-dawn hours. Her sleep had been almost as troubled as Takashi's. But unlike Takashi, her sleep had been disturbed by feelings of anger, frustration, indignation, and perhaps,…..guilt?

She had tossed and turned most of the night, and had finally settled to sleep, and like most of the city, was blissfully unaware of the life and death struggle going on in their own backyard.

* * *

We had all just peeled back from our firing lines, and were climbing aboard the chopper after the engines had finally reached the proper RPM's for take-off. Men scrambled for seats as men behind covered them and then climbed aboard as well.

I had just taken off my med-pak and wedged it under a seat in the cabin, and then hurled myself into what would have been the door gunner's seat if this had been a military helicopter.

No sooner had I fallen into the canvas seat, than I had to quickly raise my carbine and snap off two shots at an approaching blood-covered man in mechanic coveralls and a big bandage on his right hand who was reaching towards me.

"WHOA!" I yelled as I squeezed the trigger twice and the top of his head exploded as he dropped to the ground.

THAT, had been WAY too close.

* * *

The things were so close to us by now that all of us on either side of the chopper with a clear field of fire, had to maintain a steady rate of gunfire at the approaching hoard climbing over the bodies of the ones we had already shot, in their ceaseless attempts to get to us.

These things just would not stop coming.

The roar of the main rotor was deafening as Glenn pulled back on the collective and the main rotor bit into the air lifting us off the tarmac, as the mass of blood covered beings surged forward and then lifted their hands as if to reach out and grab the skids as we climbed in the air.

I stopped firing and hurriedly clicked on my seatbelt as I stared at the writhing, moaning hoard below.

It was an eerie sight watching them lift their hands in the air, still making biting motions with their mouths like they were just waiting for one of us to drop out of the sky.

It kinda reminded me of the times I used to throw bread crumbs to the koi fish in the koi pond behind the Alamo museum. I remembered how I used to enjoy watching all those fish waiting with open mouths at the surface of the pond waiting to snatch up the crumbs tossed into the water by the tourists.

"Except these ain't no friggin' koi, and I sure as heck don't wanna be no friggin' breadcrumb." I thought as I stared across the tarmac in the dim pre-dawn light, as it seemed like there were probably more than one hundred lumbering figures walking around aimlessly around the spot that we had just left.

"Where did all these things come from, and how the hell has nobody noticed them shuffling around all this time?" I said to myself.

Most people would have shut the doors of the helicopter at this point to shield us from the wind and noise as well as the awful scene below us, but it's an unwritten rule that the doors are either removed or left open in military helicopters.

There are a few reasons for that, a couple being is that they won't stop or even slow down a bullet anyway, and it's nice to be able to shoot back at your enemy.

But one of the main reasons is for rapid ingress and egress of a chopper if it's about to crash or already has, and you need to get out in a hurry.

Most aircraft are flying bombs, and since they are made of light composite materials like magnesium which burn at extreme temperatures and react explosively with water, you really don't wanna be trapped in one that's crashed and is on fire. It's not pretty pulling a victim out of a crashed aircraft that's been charred along with the aircraft.

They don't call them "crispy critters" for nothing.

* * *

I kept watching the writhing mass below reaching up at the sky for us, as Glenn flew over the top of the hangar and passed over the back lot, where the ground was still teeming with blood-covered shuffling figures.

As we passed over the lot, Glenn kicked in the left rudder, and I saw our nose pointed toward the bright lights of Tokonosu City as we slowly flew over the back lot as Chris tried to reach somebody again on the sat phone while Glenn was trying to reach someone on the radio.

Personally, I wished we could have just left at this point, and headed for the city and took our chances with the local authorities, even if it meant incarceration. Not exactly the way I wanted to visit Japan, but then again, anywhere but here was preferable.

Even a Japanese jail cell felt inviting at this point. At least I'd get that cup of coffee I wanted.

I felt a sharp rap to the side of my head and narrowly missed getting hit on the side of my head again by a pair of headphones swinging near my head. Some of the guys already had a pair on, so I took them off the hook and slipped them over my ears.

I had missed most of the radio traffic between Glenn and whoever it was he had finally made contact with at the tower. Evidently it was not going very well, the way Glenn was exchanging more obscenities with the man on the receiving end of the radio than anything else.

I don't know what the problem was, but our ears perked up immediately when a very cold voice came over our headphones.

"Unidentified Pilot. LAND IMMEDIATELY, or you WILL be shot down."

* * *

It was about as silent as it can possibly be in a helicopter flying with the doors opens for a couple seconds with no one saying a word.

"Glenn." Jerry said. "There are tangos all OVER the place man. We can't land here bro."

"F_CK 'EM!" J.R. said in frustration. "Head for the city, Glenn. We'll take our chances with the locals. Those idiots aren't aware what's headed their way, and we ain't gonna die trying to play by their rules. Hit the deck!"

"Roger that, going feet wet." Said Glenn as he dipped the nose of the helicopter down and we leveled off a few feet over the water and headed for the bright lights of Tokonosu City and hopefully, a safe place away from this island of monsters and death.

Just because we were leaving the disaster unfolding back at the airport didn't mean we were out of the woods yet though.

We had a few miles to go before we went feet dry on the mainland, and some hot-shot, JSDF F-15 Eagle pilot could still easily swoop down and lock us up with an air-to-air missile and blow us out of the sky before we got anywhere close to shore if the tower had already contacted the nearest airbase and the military had scrambled any jets.

So while Glenn red-lined the main rotor and pushed us as fast as we could go while staying as close to sea level as he could to stay off the radar, the rest of us were busy scanning the early morning skies for the bright, winking navigation lights of a JSDF fighter jet or worse, the tell-tale flash and vapor trail of an missile launch.

As I scanned the sky, I suddenly wondered if there was anything on board that would float in case we had to ditch at sea. I should mention that at a time like this it may seem that a rocket up the ass would seem to be the predominant concern in this situation.

However, I have my reasons for worrying about drowning as well as being blown to smithereens.

And if I failed to mention it before, I'll say it now.

* * *

I'm NOT a member of SEAL TEAM. I have not gone through DROWN-PROOFING.

In fact, I HAVE nearly drowned TWICE during swift water training as a firefighter.

The reason for that is because I have the density and flotation ability of a cinder block, and I "sink just like the proverbial stone", as they say.

Of course, I agree, it's a helluva time to think about drowning when I could just as easy be blown out of the sky as well.

"So much for my first helicopter ride." I thought as we sped toward the twinkling lights of the city, looking like they were a hundred miles away.

"I didn't see this crap in BACKDRAFT." I grumbled.

* * *

Eighteen year old Saeko, family name Busujima, slept peacefully in her futon.

Her sleep had been deep, as she could now finally relax after she and her team had proven victorious in the recent Kendo championship against a rival school.

The extreme training and constant practice had been exceptionally grueling in preparation for their team's match against the previous year's champions. But it had paid off, and they had arrived back to Fujimi High victorious.

It was now after 0500, a time when Saeko would already have been wide awake, and practicing her iaijutsu drills before showering, a quick breakfast, and dressing for school, which was her normal routine. Today, however, she was treating herself to a few extra minutes rest.

She had after all, earned it.

* * *

Unlike the annoying ring of an alarm clock that you can easily ignore or shut off, the sudden switching on of the lights and the LOUD blast of the tones of an Overhead Emergency Alerting system is meant to jolt a person awake from the deepest slumber, in order to get them instantly alert to respond to an emergency.

It can be heart-stopping for some, and the effects from being blasted awake in such a fashion, studies have shown, can have extremely long-lasting effects over time.

In this case however, the bright glow of the lights coming on and the blare of the ALERT klaxon only served to royally piss off twenty-six year old S.A.T. Sergeant and team sniper Rika Minami as she was harshly awakened from a deep sleep.

"Not another STUPID drill!" she grumbled as she sat up on the side of the bed, eyes narrowed to slits from the glow of the bright lights.

The barracks where the members of the S.A.T. personnel were quartered ,were designed much like the military barracks in the JSDF with small, removable walls much like an office cubicle for semi-privacy.

Only in Rika's case, being the only female S.A.T. officer assigned to the airport, it was now co-ed since there was no provision to quarter females in what had been for years a male-dominated world.

It had been no problem whatsoever for Rika, who was not afraid to live in the same quarters with her fellow all-male members in the S.A.T.

Still, for many of the men, it took a little getting used to having such an attractive looking women sharing the same sleeping quarters with them.

* * *

As everyone was hurriedly donning their black jumpsuits and donning their combat vests and other equipment, Rika, still somewhat drowsy, was busy tugging one foot into the leg of her jumpsuit as her partner and spotter Tajima walked up to the small portable wall that was her sleeping cubicle and poked his head in and quickly poked his head out as she was still not dressed in anything but her underwear.

Rika pulled the jumpsuit to her waist, still struggling with putting it on, and wondering why she was having so much trouble putting on her jumpsuit before she realized, it was inside out.

She swore loudly as she struggled to take it right back off again.

Tajima, standing outside, was shaking his head as he listened to her struggling to get dressed.

"Minami-san, hurry up can't you? We're gonna get yelled at again for not being ready during an alert again." He said, almost whining.

"Oh, Shut up!" Rika grumbled. "I wouldn't be so out of it if I wasn't so tired from having a hundred drills every week. What is it this time anyway?"

"You know, that's a good question." Tajima wondered aloud.

Normally, when an ALERT went out, the voice of the caller from Dispatch would be announcing what the call was, and whether it was a drill or a Real World incident. There had been no such announcement over the public address system as of yet.

"That's never happened before." Tajima said as he absent-mindedly looked back over to Rika who was still sitting on her bed with her jumpsuit around her waist as she struggled to put her combat boots on.

Tajima's eyes went wide and he swallowed the lump in his throat and quickly turned back around hoping Rika hadn't noticed him staring.

Rika normally slept in her underwear much to the chagrin of the wives of the other S.A.T. personnel.

She was also a fitful sleeper, and was constantly tossing and turning in bed as the other men could attest to.

"Last night's sleep must have been exceptionally fitful." Tajima thought shaking his head.

Somehow her sports bra had slipped from place during her constant movements and Rika was accidentally flashing a generous amount of underboob that was visible for all the world to see.

"How can one of Japan's top five snipers be such an airhead in the morning?" Tajima wondered as he gazed at his watch again.

"Minami-san." Could you please hurry? We need to get to the armory!" he said, starting to get more antsy now.

"Afraid of getting yelled at again Tajima-kun? " Rika purred as she slipped on her boot and tied the lace. She loved to rile him up even more when her partner was worried about Command's evaluation of their performance.

Their conversation was cut short as the ALERT system blared again and the loudspeaker finally announced the reason for the ALERT.

* * *

"ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALL OFFICERS REPORT TO STATIONS!"

"SHOT'S FIRED! SHOT'S FIRED! SHOT'S FIRED!"

"POSSIBLE TERRORIST ATTACK AND HOSTAGE SITUATION AT MAINTENANCE HANGAR #7 "B" WING!"

"REPEAT!

"SHOT'S FIRED! SHOT'S FIRED! SHOT'S FIRED!"

POSSIBLE TERRORIST ATTACK AND HOSTAGE SITUATION AT MAINTENANCE HANGAR #7 "B" WING!"

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"

As the loudspeaker repeated its dispatch, Rika, no longer in a joking mood, launched herself from her bed holding her jumpsuit up to her waist in one hand and snatching up her combat vest with the other, as she ran past Tajima and out the door headed for the armory.

The sudden motion unfortunately, had some unexpected results when Rika had jumped to her feet and ran out the door.

Tajima, in horror, was desperately trying to keep up with her as she bounded down the hallway, his eyes wide and face red with embarrassment.

"MINAMI-SAN! CHOTTO MATTE, YO! ZIP UP YOUR SUIT,WILL YOU?! YOUR BOOBS ARE SHOWING!" he yelled in a mixture of horror and embarrassment as he ran after her.

* * *

Sixteen year old Saya, family name Takagi, lay asleep in her huge, extremely plush, western-style bed covered in stuffed animals.

She was dead to the world, a very sound sleeper, as the numerous staff employed in the rather large estate would often gossip about.

People would often gossip about her rather loud snoring that could be heard through the thick oak doors that closed off her room from the rest of the main house. And tonight was no exception, as she lay on her back, covers thrown off the bed, arms and legs akimbo with her mouth wide open snoring heavily with the pillows slightly damp from where she had slightly drooled earlier.

She had endured a very rough evening of studying for the upcoming test in sensei's class the next day. And she was not about to get a grade lower than anyone else's in that class for that matter.

She was a genius after all. And it wouldn't do for someone to best her academically, of course.

* * *

All of us let out a breath of relief as we flew up one of the large canals that fed from the city into the sea and passed over a bridge as we flew closer to the downtown area.

Somehow miraculously, we had successfully crossed the expanse of the sea from the airport to the Mainland and had safely arrived over the city without incident.

There was no way a JSDF fighter pilot was going to get permission from his HQ to go weapons free over such a largely populated area. So we could all finally breathe a little easier as we flew over the city.

The plan now was to contact the local law enforcement and get landing instructions so we could turn ourselves in. Chris had finally given up trying to contact anyone in Japan on the sat phone and had called the U.S. Embassy instead after he had made a call back to Laidlaw to tell them of our situation.

The sun was just barely peeking out over the sea, and it was still dark in some areas, as I looked over the bright lights of the city and the traffic on the streets.

As I looked out over the city, I remembered the times back in the old days when I was a Paramedic on a "box".

And I remembered how on more than one occasion as we pulled another "all-nighter", how I used to wonder what it was like for people to be peacefully asleep in their beds completely unaware of the tragedy going on about them as they slept.

"I wonder what everyone down there will think when they find out about everything that happened last night, during their morning breakfast." I thought, as I allowed myself to relax a little and enjoy the ride, as the helicopter pitched to the right, headed for the northern part of town.

* * *

Sixteen year old Kouta , family name Hirano, was dead asleep on his futon in front of the TV amongst an assortment of pizza boxes, empty candy wrappers and empty cans of energy drinks, with the headphones on the gaming system still on his ears, after a long night of gaming.

It was still going to be awhile before the dented alarm clock would signal for him to wake up for another day at school. But it had been worth staying up late for the long match he had won last night.

He had soundly beaten all his opponents at HALO after round after round of defeat the previous week. It had been close, but his RED soldier had beaten the opposing teams BLUE champion in a critical round.

* * *

'What the hell is all THIS?" said Rika, her eyes wide as she and the rest of her team stared through the windows of the assault vehicle they were being transported in.

Earlier, she and the rest of the members of "B" Squadron had quickly gathered their weapons from the armory and quickly mounted their assault vehicles and were currently following the Command cars out by the auxiliary road to the maintenance hangars on the "B" wing of the airport.

And as they passed hangar #4 on their way to hangar #7, they all came to a sudden stop as instructed by their Team Leader in the Command Car, as it seemed the road ahead was blocked by "a crowd of people slowly walking towards them, headed for the main terminal apparently." According to the radio traffic from the lieutenant, a man named Kozou.

"Are they casualties from the attack, or hostile forces?" Was the question asked by their Section Commander at their base back at the Main Terminal.

Curious, Rika pulled out a pair of binoculars from a rack on the wall of the assault vehicle and scanned the approaching crowd of people as well.

Dawn was quickly approaching, and the early morning dawn was beginning to illuminate their surroundings and improving visibility.

"Subjects appear to be airport employees." Answered the SAT lieutenant over the radio.

"There also appear to be a number of them wounded, as I see a lot of them covered in blood and moving with difficulty. "BREAK." The lieutenant said on the radio, as he switched from talking to Command, and attempted to contact Dispatch. "Dispatch, contact the fire brigade and emergency services and have them on standby until scene is secure. We have multiple casualties at my current location, Hangar #4 "B" Wing."

"Roger Command One." The voice of the dispatcher came over the radio." Fire and Emergency Services have been notified and are standing by."

"Received." The lieutenant acknowledged, as he then looked over at his driver and flipped the safety off his carbine.

"Drive slow Kinjo, let's see what we got, but stay sharp." The SAT Commander said as he then pressed the button on his car mounted radio.

"All units stand-by. We're going to make contact and see what's going on. All units acknowledge." He transmitted over the radio.

The drivers of the other three assault vehicles confirmed the order to stand by, and all teams watched as the Command Car slowly drove up to the crowd of people and then braked suddenly, about 100 meters away from the slowly moving crowd.

* * *

"Why did he stop?" Everyone was wondering as the car came to an abrupt stop.

Rika had been watching closely through her binoculars at the crowd of people and the Command car in front of them, and as the morning sun continued to rise over the sea, Rika could begin to see more visible features on the faces of the people.

And then a moment later she suddenly sucked in her breath at alarm at what she saw.

She had been about to yell a warning, when the lieutenant's voice came screaming over the radio as the tail lights of his vehicle switched over in reverse and the rear tires went throwing up a cloud of dust as they went full speed backwards AWAY from the crowd

"ALL UNITS! FALL BACK! REPEAT! ALL UNITS FALL BACK! GET OUT OF HERE! REPEAT! FALL BACK! GO,GO,GO!

"What the hell?!" all the men including Tajima said looking at each other in complete confusion.

"YOU HEARD HIM GET US OUT OF HERE!" Rika screamed as the driver shifted the stick into reverse and they sped backwards.

"Those eyes." Rika thought to herself as they sped away from the scene following closely behind the Command Car.

"Minami-san!" Tajima yelled at her as they were all tossed around in the big armored van.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? WHAT DID YOU SEE!" Tajima yelled as all the men in the van looked at her, their faces full of alarm.

Rika looked at all the members in her team and slumped into the seat she had been sitting in earlier.

"Well." She said with a weak smile on her face.

"At least it's not terrorists."

* * *

Ten year old Alice, family name Maresato, slept soundly in her small western-style bed in her shocking-pink painted bedroom.

She had a full day yesterday at school, and then enjoyed playing with her friends after school in the park near her house, before coming home to help her father cook dinner before her mother came home.

Afterwards,she had helped her mother clean the kitchen from the huge mess her father always made when he cooked for the family.

And then after completing her homework and watching TV for a bit with her mom and dad, she had gone fast asleep after brushing her teeth and plopping into bed. Her sleep was interrupted a bit by happy thoughts of her mom's promise to cook her favorite breakfast, pancakes, for her before her mother left for work.

Alice smiled slightly as she slept.

Morning was almost here.

* * *

"BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!" "BOOP!"

"WE'RE GOING DOWN! WE'RE GOING DOWN!" yelled Jerry through our headsets, while the instrument panels continued blinking and alarms had been going off for the past 10 seconds as a sudden shudder, shook the chopper and then we had heard a loud metallic "CLANG" come from somewhere behind us as the tail of the helicopter suddenly started to swing in a clock-wise motion about 100 feet over the city streets.

We had been flying over a part of the city that appeared to be more residential and close to a huge tree-filled city park when suddenly Glenn reported the rudder pedals felt "sluggish", and then suddenly, the shudder and loud noise came a few seconds later as we flew over the park and we went into our spin.

I don't know how many of my other brothers in the Fire Service have experienced this, although I'm sure the guys in the Northern states have, unlike us in South Texas where a light sprinkle of rain or snow shuts down all the highways in San Antonio.

But once while enroute to a call for a car accident, we drove over a rise on IH-35 North and came across the scene of an accident that we didn't even know about.

And to avoid colliding with the police walking around in the freeway in front of us, the driver of our pumper stepped on the brake and we went into a complete 360 degree spin, while propelling forward at 50 miles per hour.

We all braced ourselves and kept our eyes focused on everything around us without making a sound as we spun around in a complete circle towards the helpless police.

I waited for the sound of thumping bodies of the policemen out on the freeway as our truck spun towards them, and as we continued our spin, I saw that we were headed for the concrete dividers and I thought to myself, "We're gonna impact, BRACE!"

And as we continued to spin, somehow, we missed the wall, AND the policemen, but as I looked out the window, I saw two semi-trucks hurtling towards us, and I thought. "OH SHIT,THIS IS IT!" and then,….NOTHING.

We had just completed a full 360 degree spin at 50 MPH, without hitting ANYTHING or ANYBODY.

Some people called us lucky that night.

I say. "NO. God was looking out over us."

* * *

I still believe that to this day.

No way does a truck our size not hit anything hurtling across the freeway without impacting ANYTHING or someone getting hurt.

But nothing happened, and we continued on to the call, although the front end of the truck was vibrating badly afterwards and it had to be taken out of service the next day.

And now, 100 feet in the air over a park in Japan, I was feeling déjà vu all over again as we spun out of control in the sky as Glenn and Jerry struggled to keep us from crashing and exploding in a ball of fire.

In the firetruck, we spun only once, and that is the most awful feeling to be spinning out of control and there's nothing you can do about it but wait for the sudden impact.

In a helicopter spinning 100 feet in the air without control of the tail rotor, the experience was similar but a hell of a lot more terrifying as we were spinning a lot more than just one 360 degree turn, and the feeling was beyond description.

A firetruck is basically a moving toolbox and built like a tank. They can absorb a lot of damage without the occupants being hurt inside.

A helicopter is not so solidly constructed, and as some pilots will tell you that from the moment you take off in one, a helicopter is trying it's best to kill you.

I've never experienced motion sickness in all my years in the back of a "box", or on a pumper, but I admit, I was starting to feel a little funny by the fourth spin, unlike the kid seated in the seat next to me who, on spin number two, threw up all over my left arm as I tried to keep him in his seat.

"Awww, dang it kid! I yelled as he continued to dry heave. I wasn't upset with him as much as I was upset with myself, when on the second spin of the helicopter my med-pak, which had been wedged beneath the kid's seat popped free and went sailing out the door into the trees below.

"Aw,…DAMMIT!" I swore.

* * *

GREAT! Now I had just lost my only means of treating anyone if we survived this ordeal.

Well, I still had my back-up med-pak attached to my other pack. Still, I felt like an idiot for letting my primary med-pak go flying out the door.

Of course now was no time to worry about it as we went into spin number three.

Just like in the pumper when we lost control last year, there were no screams or yelling by any of the guys or the mechanics. We were all waiting to see where or what, we were gonna impact, as well as waiting to be able to act once we hit the ground.

As Glenn tried to auto-rotate us towards a clearing in the park, I noticed that some sort of statue of a man was in the middle of a fountain, right in the middle of the clearing that I guess Glenn hadn't seen because of the trees, which were so close now I could step on the tops of them.

I hit the button on my headset as we cleared the trees and headed right for the statue.

"GLENN! STATUE!" I screamed into the mouthpiece.

But it was too late. I tucked my legs in and covered my face with my arms as we headed right for the statue.

* * *

"BRACE! BRACE! BRACE!" Glenn yelled at us, as unfortunately ,there was nothing he could do as our tail impacted the statue and we crashed into the fountain on our port side with the main rotor exploding into a hail of metal parts, water, and pieces from the obliterated statue with the horrible screeching sound of rending metal all around us and the enormous cyclone of water kicked up by the rotor that threatened to drown us as it cascaded over us.

For a moment there was no sound or movement from any of us, as Glenn and Jerry hurriedly shut off switches and powered down the helicopter. The only sound besides the turbines going off, were the splashes of water falling on the fuselage and the "thunks" of debris hitting against the hull of the stricken bird, and splashing into the wrecked fountain.

The first person to speak was J.R. "Everybody OK?"

There was a chorus of "Yeah's" throughout the cabin, even from the Japanese.

Somehow, miraculously, just like my experience in the spinning firetruck the previous year, we had all come out of a potentially fatal wreck, safe and sound.

Well, safe anyway.

* * *

"OK, everybody's alive, now is anybody hurt?" I asked as I pulled my Surefire light out of my belt holster and shined it throughout the cabin.

It was quite a mess. We were lying on our port side in about a foot of water, and all the guys were busy trying to keep from falling on each other as they were attempting to climb over their seats to get out.

There was a chorus of "NO's" as well, much to my relief.

You wanna talk about miracles. We were living proof of one right now.

I quickly unbuckled from my seat from which I had been sitting like a NASA astronaut waiting to be launched into space, and started helping the guys to climb up and over the fuselage of the crippled chopper and into the ice cold water in the fountain below as we were continuously being drenched by water from the shattered fountain.

We had somehow impacted the statue in such a way that the hull of the chopper was now leaning against the base of the statue, with the statue itself completely demolished by the whipping of the main rotor as we crashed.

All that was left was a pair of metal feet from whatever historical figure the statue was meant to replicate.

I could just see the headlines now in the Tokyo Shinbun.

"AMERICAN MERCENARIES ORDERED EXECUTED BY JAPANESE GOVERNMENT FOR DESECRATION OF WAR HERO MEMORIAL."

Yeah, as if shooting up zombies at an International Airport, hijacking an aircraft with Japanese nationals aboard as hostages, flying over sovereign airspace, and then crashing into a public park in a major city, armed to the teeth wasn't bad enough already.

Yeah, I'd say we were definitely on Japan's shit list pretty deep right now.

* * *

I figured the repercussions from this night's events would come down on us pretty hard alright.

That is, if we didn't drown first.

The deluge of water coming from the thoroughly trashed fountain was giving us fits, as we all tried to climb out of the chopper while we were being continuously pounded by the force of the water hitting us as if a dam had burst.

As I helped each man climb out of the wreck, and helped toss packs and weapons to the men below, Glenn and Jerry had somehow managed to climb out of the front and into the pool below.

Since I was the last man out of the chopper, I did a quick scan of the interior of the cabin with my light and seeing no one left aboard, and no equipment or weapons left behind, I then passed my pack to Steve standing below, and using the landing skid as a handhold, I dropped into the freezing water with a splash.

I then grabbed my pack and slung it over my shoulders and splashed through the pool as I went to join the rest of the guys gathered outside of the pool standing guard, weapons ready, in a perimeter around the crash site.

"Glenn, that was some great flying bro, quit taking it so hard man." I heard Chris telling Glenn as he seemed to be rather pissed with himself over the crash as if he had been responsible for the whole disaster.

Glenn and Jerry both had pulled off a miracle, by bringing down a crippled helicopter experiencing a complete failure of the tail rotor, and had managed to auto-rotate us without slamming into a building or the ground in a fiery ball of flame, with each of us alive and unhurt, save for a few bumps and bruises.

Yet Glenn was still pissed off at himself.

It figures though, pilots are extremely proud of their skills, and any of the guys in the Nightstalker regiment have reason to be. So anything other than absolute perfection, is just not friggin' good enough I guess, judging from Glenn's mood. Even Jerry was a little down in the mouth.

"Hey," Said Chris, trying to lighten the mood a bit as we walked our water-logged bodies out to the rest of the group. "You guys are always saying, any landing you can walk away from is a good one."

"Yeah, whatever." Glenn said still grouchy.

"Actually that particular one was only so-so." I chirped in, trying a different tact to lighten the mood. "But the view of the stars and the morning sky was awesome from my seat once the debris stopped falling from the sky."

"F_ck you, Jim." grumbled Glenn as Chris rolled his eyes.

"You're welcome, buddy." I said innocently, avoiding a splash of water Glenn kicked up at me as we stepped out of the fountain.

"Take it easy,…."CRASH." I said to Glenn with a grin on my face as he flipped me the bird.

* * *

And that's how it is.

Going through hell and back, experiencing stark terror, and horrible pain, the ability to laugh off your troubles and plod on made me so glad I chose my profession as a firefighter/paramedic in the past, and now as a team medic with these former commandos.

Stuff like what we just experienced would have had most people freaking out in a psych ward somewhere.

We on the other hand, were able to shrug it off and continue on thanks to the strength of our friends.

You can never underestimate the strength of camaraderie folks.

The sound of sirens filled the air as we joined up with the rest of the guys. In a few moments, our ordeal would be over, and we would all be in the custody of the Japanese Government. Sitting in a cell, separated from each other and the rest of the world, awaiting trial for what I'm absolutely sure would be the strangest case the Japanese, if not the whole world would ever hear about.

Unless, there was going to be a cover-up of this incident which in that case, we would never be heard from again.

Oh well, no time to worry about that now. At least we weren't digested zombie poop back at the airport.

As the sun started to bathe the sky in its early morning glow and we could now see the lights of the police cars through the trees as they pulled up to the edge of the park about 200 feet away, the sirens finally stopping their incessant blaring.

We could then see policemen climbing out of their cars and taking up defensive positions behind the doors of their vehicles with pistols drawn, which was our cue for all of us to slowly lower our weapons and throw up our hands.

The Japanese with us raised their hands as well, as the loudspeaker of one of the cars blared out a warning in Japanese which I'm assuming was a warning to surrender and drop all weapons.

"Here we go." I said out loud.

"CONTACT REAR!" I heard Jerry yell suddenly from behind us.

"Easy, bro." said J.R. "Let's not freak out the locals, shall we?"

"IT aint cops, J.R.!" Yelled Jerry still facing our rear. "IT'S THE F_CKING ZOMBIES!"

"Carefully so as not to startle the police and have some nervous cop accidentally start a chain reaction of all the police capping rounds at us, J.R. slowly turned his head, and I heard him suck in his breath.

Chris standing next to me, slowly turned his head too.

"You gotta be F_CKING KIDDING ME!" He said incredulously.

We had all lost interest in the police still shouting orders over their car's loudspeaker as we all turned around with our hands still in the air in horror, at a terror we thought we had all left behind on the bloody tarmac back at the airport.

Behind us, about 200 feet away, slowly shuffling towards us amongst the trees, came the same moaning lurching, blood-covered monsters we had just run away from. We had assumed the threat was at the airport, isolated from the mainland.

Not here in the middle of a major metropolitan city with thousands of people waking up to start their daily routine unaware that death was already here on their doorstep.

And now here we were, stuck between THEM, and a nervous police force waiting to start shooting at us the moment we raised a weapon to defend ourselves, even though they had no idea of the even bigger threat headed their way that was out to kill us all.

We thought we had just escaped Death's icy grip.

We thought we were safe.

We thought the worst was over.

We couldn't have been more wrong.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This was the last part of my fanfic before we transition to more familiar territory, that is, the original manga/anime version of HOTD. In the next few chapters, the original story is what I'll be focusing on with some obvious changes.

Before I go on, I want to thank all of you for reading my story, and especially all of you who have given such nice reviews of my story and to those of you who have put my story on their "favorites". I can't tell you how much it means to know that you all are enjoying my story and I hope to keep making it enjoyable for all of you.

Incidentally, I did mention that this story would have true life accounts in it. The story of our infamous spin on the freeway and my drowning experiences are all true. I'm very blessed to be alive today, and not just because of these two incidents that I mentioned. This job is extremely hazardous sometimes and me and the guys that were with me know just how fortunate we are every day.

Also, and this is more humorous. I didn't write the whole Rika boob thing to make my story a little ecchi, although I'm sure a lot of the guys reading this don't mind. But as I was writing Rika's introduction in the story, I remembered an incident that had happened a long time ago.

The fact is, when I was a paramedic in a private ambulance service years ago before I became a fireman, all of us, men and women alike, used to be quartered in one big bunk house which we all shared. And since there were only open bunks available for all of us to sleep in on our 24 hour shift, we all ate, and slept together.

One night, a female medic awoke for a call in the middle of the night, and accidentally flashed all of us in the same manner as Rika did, since we were all awakened by the tones and the lights coming on and was completely unaware of it until someone yelled at her.

When she came back from the call, red as a beet, we all had a good laugh afterwards and went back to sleep. I thought it would be funny if art imitated real life this time.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story altogether. And I'll be working on the next one.


	7. Chapter 6- The Day Everything Came

"_On the night before the day when everything came to an end, I stayed up late." _

_Takashi Komuro: age 17_

* * *

Last Alarm

Chapter Six

The Day Everything Came To An End.

* * *

Seventeen year old Takashi Komuro looked in horror at the at the grotesque scene from his perch on the third floor landing of the fire escape on the "C" wing side of the school.

He had been quietly pondering the events of the past week, and in his sad thoughts he had reminisced of the days of his childhood, when the love of his life made a simple, yet profound promise when they were still children.

A promise, that in his heart he hoped would grow to a lifetime of joy and happiness. And yet, it seemed that in a mere glimpse of time, it had become as nothing.

The sudden abrupt visit from a fellow classmate earlier had done little to improve his mood, as Saya Takagi seemed to only be able to twist the knife cleaving his heart in two with the even sharper edge of her tongue.

With only insults and criticism assailing his ears from the sharp-tongued teen, Takashi used the only effective weapon in his arsenal to stop the onslaught from the school's most annoying know-it-all.

He simply ignored her.

It was enough to gain him a reprieve from her insults and helped encourage her to leave him alone with his thoughts, but did little to improve his mood.

And as he continued to allow his thoughts to drift back to the source of his heartache, a sudden banging of metal had interrupted his thoughts once again as it appeared a man, possibly intoxicated, seemed intent on slamming himself through the locked gates in the teacher's parking lot.

"Is he some drunk or just some psycho?" Takashi thought.

Four teachers had been alerted by the noise, and as they confronted the man at the gate, Takashi watched one of the teachers, a man named Tejima, grab the lethargic man and then roughly slam him against the gate.

"Showing off for Hayashi sensei again." Takashi thought. The whole school knew the two teachers were an item, as much as they both denied it. Still, even if it weren't true, Tejima sensei seemed to sure be intent on constantly showing off in front of Hayashi sensei every chance he got.

The teacher was also a wrestling coach, and prided himself on his strength, and was accustomed to pushing the students beyond their physical abilities just to boost his own ego, which made him extremely unpopular with the students.

His strength did little to prevent what happened next when the man suddenly broke away from Tejima's grip and proceeded to bite a huge chunk out of the teacher's arm.

His screaming and his rolling on the ground came as quite a shock to Takashi and to the teachers standing around him as well as the heavy loss of blood splashing on the pavement. Even more shocking was when the teacher suddenly stopped moving and no longer appeared to be breathing.

Even from his perch, Takashi could see no chest rise coming from the man.

"He's dead from a BITE to the arm?" Takashi wondered incredulously. "How is THAT possible?"

* * *

Then as if to put everyone's fears to rest, the teacher appeared to be breathing again, much to the relief of Hayashi sensei, whose visible relief at seeing Tejima appear to fully recover, betrayed her obvious romantic feelings for him.

Suddenly, without warning, the injured teacher reached up and grabbed the woman by the front of her blouse, and yanked her down pulling her close to him. His jaws then opened and clamped down on her neck, biting through the skin and severing her carotid artery.

Her screams as she writhed on the ground dying, caused the other two teachers to finally lose their nerve, and they turned and ran away from the gruesome scene as fast as their legs could carry them.

Takashi was stunned at what he had just witnessed. The shock to his brain was only momentary however. The receptors in his brain overrode the fear and the panic, that was the normal response to a traumatic event and prepared him for the normal human "Fight or flight" reaction. However, his first thoughts were not of preserving his own life, nor were they focused on seeking help.

His only thoughts were the life and well-being of one person, the source of his greatest joy and recently, his deepest pain. Takashi immediately tore away from the railing and sprung up the flight of stairs two at a time and slammed through the door, running as fast as he could through the empty hallway.

"REI!" Thought Takashi. "I HAVE TO GET TO REI!"

* * *

It had gone so horribly wrong.

The firefight at the airport had been a nightmare enough as it was. Over there, we were up against superior numbers, all of them hostile, but our advantage was that none of them were armed with anything more than their teeth.

While we were only a handful of men, with the weapons we carried with us, we had managed to hold them back long enough to make our escape to where we thought was safety on the mainland.

Now instead of the nightmare being over, we were stuck between the figurative rock and a hard place, facing the same deadly enemy we had just escaped from earlier, on one side of us.

But now, we had another dilemma. We had "friendly forces" in this case, the local police, lined up on our other side with weapons drawn, waiting with itchy trigger fingers to open fire on what I'm sure they believed, were heavily-armed international terrorists on their native soil.

Oh yeah, we were SO screwed.

* * *

"Everybody, sling your weapons, and put your hands on top of your heads, and start walking slowly towards the cops." J.R. ordered.

He then quickly spoke to the Japanese men with us, and after he finished they nodded their heads and began putting their hands over their heads as well, lining up in front of us.

I was puzzled at first, but then realized what the plan was.

We were going to surrender to the police.

And by having the Japanese move in front of us first, we were showing to the police that the Japanese were not harmed and not hostages by having them walk in front of us.

We on the other hand, would walk behind them with weapons slung, and hands over our heads and try to appear as non-threatening as possible. It was our hope that the police would be less inclined to start spraying bullets if they could see that their fellow countrymen were not in any danger, and that we weren't a threat.

"Why not lay down your arms and then surrender?" You ask?

Because our "Friends" were closing in on us pretty fast, and by the time the police realized that we weren't the real threat here, it might be too late.

And if the Police didn't began to realize that we were the good guys here pretty soon, we might have to make the hard choice to defend ourselves, both from the police and our hungry friends.

Deep down, I was praying J.R.'s plan would work. I've worked alongside with police for years now, and I have some close friends amongst their ranks.

For many years I've worked and suffered together with the P.D. guys in all kinds of situations, in all kinds of weather and in all times of the day or night, and just to show you how close we were to the police we worked with, we even cooked and shared meals together back at the station, and spent time together on our days off hunting or fishing or enjoying backyard backyard BBQ' with them and our families.

And even though these policemen were of a different nation, they were still fellow first responders. They were still fellow "brothers in blue" in the public service world, and they were still only doing their job.

I can't tell you how torn I was between the possibility of having to open fire on the police to keep my buddies and myself safe from the walking death coming at us. Still, if they got nervous, and it came down to them or us.

Well, I prayed even harder that this plan would work believe me.

* * *

J.R. shouted something to the line of police still aiming their pistols at us while the officer-in-charge continued to shout through his loudspeaker, probably telling us to drop our weapons or put our faces in the ground.

The Japanese men walking in front of us looked back at us nervously. But J.R. continued to speak to them, encouraging them to continue to shout to the police that we weren't hostile and that an even bigger threat was behind us, I suppose, because a few of the police picked up their heads to look over our shoulders as if to see if there was anything behind us.

The mechanics and guard were still shouting to the police not to shoot at us I guess, but it seemed to me that the cops were determined not to pay attention to our efforts to surrender peacefully and were getting more and more agitated that we weren't complying word for word to their commands.

Much as I hated the situation, I could understand why the police were being so adamant about us dropping our weapons and kissing the dirt.

Police are taught to maintain control of a situation no matter what.

One of the main lessons they learn in the Police Academy is that if you lose control of a situation, the situation will control you.

Sounds kinda simple and almost cheesy too, but you have to understand, if the cop is in a possible volatile situation and he doesn't handle the situation by doing everything in his power to gain control by peaceful or aggressive means. Then the situation can boil over and get out of control and people get hurt or killed.

It's a job that is a lot harder to do than people think and I can't tell you how much these guys are underpaid and underappreciated for the job they do.

Most people and their children will wave at firemen as we pass by in the big red truck. But I have as yet to see someone give a friendly wave to a police car going by unless the car is way past them, and then they give a wave alright, only it's the universal one-finger wave.

Much as I have a lot of respect for the "boys in blue" of ANY nation. There was no way we were gonna comply with their orders verbatim.

* * *

One, I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I had no clue what the Police Commander was saying in the first place, since my Japanese is limited to the few words and phrases I picked up from watching subtitled anime back in the 90's.

So there was no way I could comply with their demands, word for word, like they wanted. Funny, I guess my latino features just didn't convince them that I wasn't a local and had no idea what the hell they were saying.

Second, as we were moving forward to the police, our cannibal friends behind us must have smelled dinner on the table, because they seemed to have kicked it into second gear as they appeared to be closing in on us a lot faster than before. They were still shuffling forward, but at a quicker pace.

Personally, as crazy as it sounds, I was glad these were the George Romero version of zombies. You know, the classic slow-moving lethargic kind and not the Olympic athlete runner types that came out in the re-makes. We'd have been long dead otherwise.

Still, there was no way we were going to drop our weapons to the ground and then lay flat waiting to be cuffed and leave ourselves defenseless. Unfortunately, it was beginning to look more and more, like this situation was not going to end very well for any of us.

* * *

"Boss, they're not buying it." Ben said to Chris as we were now about 100 feet away from the line of police cars.

"Nope, it don't look like it at all." Said Chris, who then turned his head to look at J.R.

"What do you think, bud?" he asked as the voice on the loudspeaker seemed to be screaming in anger now.

"Yeah." Said J.R. with a sigh, " Looks like it's "Plan B" time again."

He then spoke loud enough so all of us could hear, but not loud enough for the police to overhear his plan. " Alright, everybody get ready. When I give the word, SCATTER.

"Try not to open fire on the locals if you can avoid it." He continued. " Get clear of here, and E&E as best you can. Rally at the "Hilton".

The "Hilton" was our code word for the U.S. Embassy,…..IN TOKYO.

"AW GEEZ, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" I thought with alarm." TOKYO?! That's over three hundred miles away!"

* * *

While all the guys had all been through SERE training in the military and this was nothing new for them, I had only been given a simplified course when the guys were training me back in Nevada for a contract we were going to be doing in AFRICA.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an impossible thing to do, even with my giant self, traipsing across the Japanese countryside hoping I don't get noticed.

But truth was, unlike the guys, I had no experience trying to evade and escape a nation-wide manhunt, and I have to say, I was feeling a little overwhelmed on my first-ever OP as a fill-in medic mercenary.

For a guy that had never been outside of Texas before I took on this job, I really felt I had bit off more than I could chew.

As it turns out, my hopes that we were not going to need to fire upon the police to save ourselves came true. Although not in the way I was expecting at all.

As we were all tensing up to leap amongst the trees and scatter to the four winds, I saw movement in the trees fairly close to where the police were holding their position, and as I looked, a single figure shuffled out of the cover of the trees headed towards the police whose attention was squarely on us and not watching their flank.

"OH SHIT." I heard a few of the guys say as they had also seen the lurching figure come shuffling out of the trees in a beeline for the first squad car.

The cops were about to come under attack and didn't even know it.

* * *

My mind raced to think of the word for "Left" in the Japanese language.

"Is it MIGI or HIDARI?" My mind was screaming. I wasn't sure. "Ah, screw it!" I said out loud as the guys turned their heads towards me, probably thinking I'd lost it.

"HIDARI!" I screamed. "MITTE! (Look) HIDARI! HIDARI! ABUNAI! (Danger) HIDARI!

It was probably not the best thing to do with a bunch of trigger happy police whose nerves were probably on a razor's edge to begin with, staring down a bunch of armed mercenaries. But I couldn't help myself. They were not the bad guys at all, and right now, they were in the same boat as we were.

The officer on the loudspeaker stopped talking in mid-sentence suddenly, as a couple of his men cried out in alarm.

The lone figure that had shuffled out of the trees had been joined by a small crowd of his buddies dressed in the clothes of office workers apparently very hungry and very agitated, as they immediately set their sights on the police who were now beginning to realize they'd been looking at the wrong perp's all along.

But it wasn't till the police in the first car opened fire without any effect on the attackers and were attacked themselves that the rest of the police reacted.

But unfortunately, they didn't react quite the way we had hoped either, as about roughly half the Police started shooting at the monsters attacking their comrades while the rest fired a couple shots in our direction.

The shots went wide, but we weren't sticking around for them to adjust their aim.

* * *

"RUN!" GO! GO!GO! Yelled Chris , as everyone scattered and started running amongst the trees and out of the line of fire.

The Japanese mechanics had given up trying to convince their fellow countrymen of their innocence, and were running along with the rest of the guys who were also taking shots at some of "Them" who were also moving amongst the trees.

"PAPPY!" GET OUT OF THERE! RUN!" I heard Ben yelling as he took off for parts unknown.

I had already been on the move along with the rest of the guys when the first shots at us had been fired, and I was almost in the clear too, now that the police had completely lost interest in us as more of the things had started attacking the police and they were being overwhelmed by a mob of these things, that seemed to spring out of nowhere.

But I guess Ben had seen me as I suddenly stopped running, after I heard the young mechanic that we'd brought along with us start screaming.

I turned around to see him sitting on the ground, his hands over his ears, and he was evidently overcome with fear from the traumatic events he'd had to endure in the past hour and now with bullets whistling above his head, men screaming in pain as they died just a few feet away from us, and bloodthirsty monsters approaching relentlessly.

Well, I guess it was just too much for the kid to bear and he was now in one of the worst stages of human fear.

Hysterics.

He was screaming the same thing over and over again, and even with my limited Japanese, I recognized what he was screaming, and it tore my heart apart.

The kid was calling for his mother.

* * *

Nineteen year old Yuki Matsura was completely out of his mind with fear. He had gone to work at the airport with his uncle as an apprentice mechanic and had been learning the trade now for over a year. He still had hoped to get into a good university, and pursue his real dream of being an architect. But with his grades, he needed to pay the balance of the partial scholarship he had received in order to attend the university he wanted to attend, and so he had taken the job under his uncle's advice.

Unfortunately, It was his uncle that had been attacked back at the airport, as the other mechanics later told him what had happened.

And now he had seen them for himself up close and personal the very monsters that had killed his uncle and two of his friends as the Americans had fought them. Yuki had been right on the edge of panic ever since the Americans had pushed them into the old plane they had been working on since that afternoon.

Now between the helicopter crash and the screams of men dying around him, and the sound of bullets whizzing by his ear, he had now been thrown completely over the edge.

"I WANT TO GO HOME! I WANT TO GO HOME! " He screamed as he kneeled to the ground, hands over his ears.

And then as the panic completely overwhelmed him, he cried for the only person he could think of that could make everything better. The only one who had ever made him feel safe in his entire life.

"KA-CHAN! KA-CHAN! KA-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! He screamed unable to stop himself.

A hand grabbed his arm and he instinctively opened his eyes and screamed as he thought the monsters had come for him at last.

Instead, he looked into the eyes of the big American whose big, heavy bag he had carried at the airport and who he had thrown up all over his arm when the helicopter went out of control.

He had thought that the man was mad at him for vomiting on him and then for letting that other heavy bag fly out the open door.

Instead, the big man was down on one knee kneeling over him, a gentle smile and a calm look on his face.

* * *

"It's okay, son. I'm here. Let's go." The man said in English, in a voice so calm it seemed that the man was not afraid at all of the horror going on around them, but he seemed more concerned with making sure that Yuki was alright.

Yuki blinked, and tears still burning his face, he got up from the ground and started following the big man as they ran away from the horrible scene. They had only run a few feet when a shot kicked up the dirt near them and they came to a sudden stop.

They both turned towards the direction the gunshot had come from and Yuki saw that it was a young policeman pointing his revolver at them. He looked almost as young as Yuki was, and his eyes were full of fear too, with tears streaming from his eyes as the pistol visibly shook in his hand.

Yuki watched in horror as the young cop pointed his revolver at the American and then pulled the trigger.

The hammer of the young man's gun clicked as it fell, but there was no report.

He had obviously fired all five of his shots, and in the stress of the situation, had lost count of his shots.

The frightened policeman seeing that he was empty, was struggling to open the chamber of his revolver as the American yelled at him and then raised his short rifle and fired.

Yuki closed his eyes, thinking the American had killed the policeman, but as the American continued to shoot, he opened his eyes and saw that the American was shooting at a number of the monsters that were attacking the police.

The young policeman that had shot at Yuki and the American had been nearly attacked by one of "Them" while he was trying to reload, and the American had shot it just as the attacker had placed his hand on the young cop's shoulders.

The American was now walking forward and shooting at the attacking horde and yelling for the police to run, Yuki guessed, because suddenly all the police started to run away from the monsters and towards the direction where Yuki and the American had been running.

As he was running by, one of the police grabbed Yuki's arm and yelled at him to run.

"WHO IS THAT GUY?!" the policeman yelled at the young mechanic as they ran.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Yuki answered running as fast as his legs could carry him. "BUT RIGHT NOW, HE'S MY BEST FRIEND! He yelled as they caught up with the rest of the fleeing police and kept on going.

* * *

The police had been fighting back courageously with their ASP batons after having used up the rounds in their 5-shot revolvers.

But with the over-whelming numbers coming in now from their flank and from the front, there was just no way hand-to-hand combat was going to save these guys from getting killed. I looked at the kid that had just shot at me and was surprised to see that didn't look much older than the kid I had just gone back for.

"Probably a rookie." I thought judging from the way his hands were shaking as he tried to reload his pistol.

Unless you have a speedloader, a revolver is a pain to reload, especially under stress, so as he was trying to reload, one of "Them" came from around the back of one of the patrol cars and was trying to help himself to the kid's throat as I raised my carbine up just as it had grabbed his shoulder.

"GET DOWN!" I yelled as I squeezed the trigger.

The Infected man's head snapped back as the rookie cop gasped and looked at the thing that had nearly killed him.

"Welcome to Law Enforcment, kid!" I shouted, as I aimed at the next creature and started popping each one trying to save as many of the policemen as I could.

But we were quickly being overrun, and try as I might, policemen started to fall before the monstrous horde, and a moment later, there was nothing more that I could do.

"GET OUT OF HERE! I yelled at the cops that were still standing.

"ISOGI!" I screamed, hoping it was the right word for "Go".

Some of them managed to break away as I covered them, maybe about five as the rest were quickly overcome and there was nothing else I could do but try to save my own skin as the bunch that had been behind us, finally linked up with their fellow Infected.

I ran through my carbine's magazine and then dropped my carbine, letting it hang from its sling as I then transitioned to my pistol and continued firing until the police were all clear and then turned heel myself and ran after the police down the street, until we were suddenly blocked by a huge crowd of people.

Evidently all the noise had attracted a bunch of people on their way to work and they all seemed oblivious to the walking death roaming the streets around them because as I rounded a corner, all of the surviving police and the young mechanic were standing in front of a large crowd of people eagerly trying to gawk at the bloody scene behind us and seemed more intent on getting a good look instead of listening to the police who were yelling for the people to run for their lives I assumed, from the way the police were shouting and waving their arms.

The reason Military and Police Instructors always warn recruits that you NEVER fire a warning shot in the air is because ONE, you might hit somebody close by, obviously.

And TWO, because of the simple fact that what goes up must come down.

A bullet shot in the air will eventually comply with gravity's pull and will eventually, come hurtling back to earth. And since bullets don't have a guidance system that recognizes bad guy or good guy, well, they'll hit and kill anything in their path.

It happens in the U.S. all the time during the holidays when people get liquored up and start shooting their guns in the air as a cheap alternative to fireworks.

Still, I didn't see much of a choice at the time, not unless I wanted to leave these people here all set up as a buffet. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

But it worked.

* * *

I pulled my empty mag out of my carbine and slapped in a new one and fired two shots straight up into the air.

Well, that only got their attention.

So when that didn't work and the crowd still hesitated, I switched the lever to FULL AUTO and fired three bursts in the air while I began running towards them yelling my head off.

That did it.

The crowd immediately started screaming and everyone started running away with the police running after them as they say, "all assholes and elbows."

Watching them take off the way they did, I couldn't help but watch them with amusement as they headed for parts unknown.

"Just like in a Godzilla movie." I said out loud.

Yeah I know, I have a sick sense of humor sometimes.

* * *

It wasn't funny though when another bunch of police cars came screaming around the corner about a hundred feet away from me and stopped their patrol cars to avoid hitting the crowd .Then the cops got out of their cars and started leveling their revolvers and began taking shots at ME.

"OH SHIT!" I yelled as I ran down a street opposite from where they were standing with bullets whizzing over my head and impacting the walls around me.

One thing about the streets in Japan, especially in the bigger cities, they're not quite the same as the streets in America.

Matter of fact, they're more like LONG,NARROW alleyways than anything else. Basically, there's no way to hide behind a wall easily, or duck for cover from a vengeful policeman trying to kill you.

So I couldn't do like the guys taught me back in Nevada and duck and cover behind anything, or take cover behind a vehicle and fire over their heads to give myself a chance to make a decent break for it, like actor Robert De Niro and his buddies did in the movie "HEAT."

Nope, the cops had a clear view of my ass running down the street, and they did their very best to shoot it off, as I did my own version of Johnny' Depp's character Captain Jack Sparrow, and went screaming down the alley like an idiot.

So much for my dreams of being a bad-ass commando.

* * *

I'm guessing the Infected attackers had finally diverted the cop's attention from me finally, or the cop's just simply ran out of ammo, but either way, as soon as I got to the end of the street and made a hard left, I no longer heard shots or shouts coming behind me.

For the next few hours, I did my best to stay as far away from people as best as I could and not be noticed. Which is pretty damn hard for a heavily-armed American as big as I am to do, but somehow I managed, and I was able to move unnoticed through the city streets and hide under a few bridges here and there.

I actually went unnoticed for a while and finally managed to catch my breath. It wasn't till I started hearing more screams later on in the day and saw people running in all directions that I popped my head out from under a bridge to see what the fuss was all about.

The situation had apparently gotten WORSE, because now a LOT of people were running in panic now, probably because the Contagion had begun to spread like wildfire throughout the city.

I deduced that fairly easily because now I started to see people screaming and running from across the OTHER side of the river as well.

Lying low now was no longer an option, and if I wanted to form a plan to be able to escape and link up with the guys, I needed to get a better view of the situation.

Making sure there were no police around, I grabbed my gear and after donning my pack. I grabbed my carbine and started running up an uphill road hoping I could find a good vantage point and try to escape this nightmare.

"I hope the guys are all right" I thought to myself as I ran uphill, seeing nothing but chaos in the city below.

* * *

It took a while before I was almost to the top, and I could get a very good view of the city.

It wasn't good. Things had definitely hit the fan down there, as I could see people running here and there while police cars and fire trucks ran helter-skelter as well, and smoke from fires were now starting to drift in the sky.

"Damn." I swore. "How long has this thing been going on? You can't tell me those things took over an ENTIRE city in a matter of hours?!

I didn't have long to ponder my own questions though, as a familiar moaning came from my left.

"Aw, man!" I said in despair. "Don't you guys have anything better to do!" I yelled in rage.

"DANG IT!" I said putting my hands on my head and sighing. I then turned my head to face my latest dilemma.

"AW, CRAP!" He wasn't alone either. These guys really believe in hunting in packs I guess, because there were a BUNCH of them, and not just office workers either, but what looked like school kids as well.

"Awwww, no!" I moaned. "Not kids too."

* * *

I shook my head and then looked around.

The Infected were still a ways off around the corner of the hill, but they would be pretty close to biting range in a couple minutes, so I looked for my best exit strategy.

Once again, turning right was not an option as I looked back towards the smoking city.

Left was no good either with the moaning munchers coming down the hill.

I then looked straight up the hill to where a green chain link fence stood with what looked like some sort of modern structure behind it.

It was a steep hill, but I had something going for me.

Unlike many of the steep hills along the roads and highways in the United States, the people of Japan wisely strengthened these steep hills with steel-reinforced concrete to help prevent landslides.

They were also constructed in such a way, so that they were built in what looked like a honey-comb pattern molded into the surface, and that would definitely help me by giving me excellent hand and foot holds to use in my climb up to the top of the hill.

So once again, like back at the airport. I was going UP.

* * *

It took a bit of effort, but after a while of climbing, I had reached the top and grabbed the fence post and pulled myself up and sat on the edge, as I then looked back down at my admirers below.

These things couldn't climb, thank goodness, but they sure were giving it the old college try, as they were rubbing their fingers down to the bone LITERALLY, trying to climb up after me.

Blood from the avulsed skin of their fingers were smeared thick all over the concrete wall and their moans just seemed to get louder and louder the more they tried harder and harder to reach me.

Geez, that was so sick to look at.

Still holding the metal fence post, I grabbed my Gerber Multi-tool that I carried in a sheath on my belt and got to work.

I've had one of these on my belt ever since my paramedic days and they've been invaluable in all the years I've used them. Anytime I needed a tool in an emergency situation, these things have proven to be worth their weight in gold.

I started cutting the small pieces of wire that held the chain link fence to the metal post.

Cutting the fence itself is too hard for such a small tool and is just wasted time and energy. Cutting those little retaining wires is usually all it takes, and when I got the fence loose enough, I took off my pack and shoved it underneath, and then shuffled underneath it myself.

Once I was on the other side, I donned my pack again and nearly had a heart attack, when a couple of young blood-covered school girls came from around the corner and started walking towards me.

* * *

Covered in blood, making that awful moaning sound that was really starting to piss me off at this point every time I heard it, I stood stunned as they came shuffling towards me.

"Am I some sort of zombie version of catnip or what?" I said out loud. I just couldn't seem to turn a corner without one of these things waiting for me with bloody hands and drooling mouths.

I was tired though and I decided to stand my ground instead of moving away. I was physically exhausted, and while I wasn't ready to be served up as a Tex-Mex platter, I was getting pretty sick of running too.

So this time I stayed put and watched them come toward me, not making a sound as they shuffled forward.

After walking up to within 50 feet from me, and just as I was about to raise my carbine and open fire, the two girls suddenly halted and seemed to lose interest in attacking me all of a sudden.

"What the hell?" I thought to myself as I watched them while remaining perfectly still.

The girls didn't seem to see me, or at least, have any more interest in me as they just stood there, doing nothing.

Suddenly a shout from behind them somewhere in the building caught their attention and they raised their heads at the sound and started walking back towards the direction they had come from.

I didn't move till they were out of sight and only then did I stand up and breathe a sigh of relief.

* * *

"I guess they don't see after all." I thought to myself. All this time, I had thought these things could see just like us. Instead, they were just attracted to the sounds of shouting and all the shooting we'd been doing.

"So there isn't a big bull's-eye on my back after all." I said to myself.

The way these things kept popping up everywhere I went, I was beginning to think I was the target of this whole zombie apocalypse thing. Still, I couldn't take the chance that was really how all these things operated and just willy-nilly walk in front a whole crowd of these things and expect to get past them by moving silently.

But at least I had something to go on, and so quietly walking forward, I went the opposite direction of where the girl's had gone. Cautiously, with my carbine at the ready, I walked around the corner of the building.

Into the middle of a friggin' massacre.

* * *

It was a scene that I can't even begin to describe.

Evidently, the building was a high school judging from the uniforms the now Infected teens were wearing, although it was certainly big enough to be mistaken for a college university back home.

Everywhere I looked there were kids in school uniforms shuffling around while some were kneeling on the ground, feasting on the remains of those who were too far gone to rise again and were now being consumed down to the bone by packs of blood-covered kids, just like those mechanics at the airport.

The smell of blood, excrement and other body fluids baking in the sun was nauseating, and even though I've never thrown up once in all the years I've worked on the job, even with bodies that were days old, I have to say, I had to adjust the way I breathed a bit just so I wouldn't get sickened by the smell.

It had been my bright idea to get a higher vantage point to assess my situation and figure out the best escape route. Instead, my climb to safety from Death's cold hand that was still scratching for me at the bottom of the hill had not led me to safety at all.

Instead, I had arrived in the middle of a hornet's nest. OR, as we say back home,…..

"Out of the frying pan, and into the friggin' fire." I grumbled.

"Well, this was a royal bust." I thought. "Now what smart guy?"

I couldn't go back the way I came, which was a sure way to end up becoming a latino lunch, so my best bet was to skirt the perimeter and look for a spot not heavy with these things and climb over the wall.

Or, my next option would be to find a secure room in the building, rest a while, and then come up with some sort of plan. In truth, I didn't see a spot in this entire school that I wanted to be around for any length of time, so I started to stealthily move along the fence line looking for a safe spot to escape this place.

* * *

It was horrible, I have to say.

Everywhere that I went, it was one grotesque scene of carnage after another.

Bodies lay everywhere, ripped apart and some still in the process of being eaten by entire packs. It was like listening to wolves or lions eat. The sound was too terrible for words, and I doubt that I would ever get those sounds or those images out of my head if I ever survived this ordeal.

Still, somehow, I kept plodding on.

I guess I was about halfway across the length of the school, when I came across one side of it that was opened up and you could see the very center of the campus. The scene was no prettier here than where I had just come from at all.

But as I looked up at the upper stories of the school and saw the many walkways that connected from one side of the building to the next, I saw something that I had not expected to see.

SURVIVORS!

It was two women in fact, from what I could see, a blond woman who looked like she was probably a teacher, and a young teenage girl.

They saw me at the same time that I saw them, and I waved at them frantically as they stopped to stare at me.

I guess as rough-looking as I was, not to mention all my weapons and gear hanging off me, they were probably unsure as to whether to trust me or not.

Seeing as how the three of us were the only living survivors, from what I could see, it was best to make contact fast, let them know I was a friend, and then get out of here as quickly as possible.

I quickly scanned the open space in front of me and I noticed that here was a clear spot with no visible attackers all the way to the bottom of the stairs where the women were standing.

So with carbine to my shoulder, I started to walk quietly towards them as they watched me from above.

* * *

"WHO IS THAT?" Saeko said, peering at the large, heavily armed foreigner walking towards them with rifle at the ready, as she tightened her grip on her bokken.

"I've never seen him before." Shizuka said as she watched him approach the bottom of the stairs, being careful to not attract the attention of the Infected students stumbling around below. "Maybe he's one of the new security guards the school hired recently. There's been a LOT of perverts hanging around lately you know."

Saeko closed her eyes and shook her head at the school nurses's words. Shizuka sensei had always been one of the kindest people of all the members of the school faculty, and was an excellent school nurse, but her head seemed to be nowhere near this planet sometimes, Saeko thought.

"Sensei." Saeko sighed. "Since when does the school district hire foreign nationals as school guards, and especially those armed with assault weapons?"

"I hadn't thought of that." Shizuka said, pouting. Then her eyes suddenly brightened as a thought came to mind. "Ah, I know! Maybe he's that new teacher from Canada we just got on the exchange program!"

Saeko closed her eyes again and began rubbing her temples as she felt a headache coming on.

Before Saeko could respond to the school nurse's completely ludicrous theory, they were both startled by the sound of a girl's scream to their right.

Immediately, they began to run towards the source of the scream, in the hopes they were not too late to help the young frightened girl screaming in fear for her life.

* * *

I had just reached the bottom of the stairs when I heard the sound of a young girl screaming.

I looked up thinking it was one of the two women on the landing, but they were both running towards a door in the main building, obviously trying to come to the aid of whoever was in trouble.

I didn't hesitate either, and I bounded up the stairs two at a time.

I have to say, all those years climbing stairs and working with 100 pounds of equipment hanging off my back, not to mention all the mandatory gym time at the Fire department had certainly paid off today.

Even with my heavy sniper pack on my back all day, I barely felt the weight of it as I was up the stairs in a flash and without being too winded too boot.

HEY, for a 44 year old retired fireman, that's pretty good, so stop laughing.

I quickly swept the area with my carbine and after seeing it was clear, I moved towards the glass doors at the end of the walkway.

Just as I was approaching the door, I heard a loud commotion coming from behind the doors.

The doors were heavily tinted and I couldn't see anything through them, but I could definitely hear through them and it sounded to me as if someone was using some sort of power tool, maybe a drill or something like that for some reason, while the voice of a young girl kept on screaming .

At the same time, I heard a series of dull sounds of someone hitting something and then, what sounded like bodies hitting the floor.

"Aw crap. Those women are REALLY in trouble." I thought as I moved swiftly towards the door and prepared to make entry.

One of the things that's the hardest to do for Firemen, Police, and I imagine the Military guys or anyone else in this world for that matter, is to avoid charging in when your adrenaline's pumping and every part of your brain is screaming at you to "DO SOMETHING!"

It's hard not to start kicking down doors and breaking windows and start dragging people out of harm's way when you're in that frame of mind.

Still, you have to control yourself, otherwise, you end up doing more harm than good.

And believe me, people have gotten hurt or killed when some well-meaning first responder kicked in a door and caused a backdraft, gave the wrong I.V. medication and killed someone, drove too fast and ran a red light at an intersection and wrecked, or accidentally fired a round while pulling their service pistol from its holster.

All of these things have happened usually because someone was on an adrenaline rush and was NOT using his head first.

Now that I'm holding a carbine in my hands instead of a fire hose, the danger had increased a thousand-fold if I didn't focus one hundred percent on what I was doing and resist the temptation to start knocking down doors and hosing down the place with bullets.

So when I stopped at the door and put my hand on the knob and got ready to make entry, I heard the same awful scream again for someone screaming for their mother.

* * *

Hearing someone scream for their mother always cuts me to my heart.

I'm not ashamed to say, it affects me in the worst possible way. It always tears me up.

If someone tells you nothing affects them EVER. They're lying or they need psychiatric care.

We all have something that affects us in some form or fashion. We do our best to overcome it, and push on to help people and do our job. But each of us in Fire, EMS, Police, and the Military have at one time or another, experienced something that kicks us in the gut whenever we come across it.

For me, hearing someone scream for their mother affects me the most.

A human scream is the most awful, painful thing to hear.

And while many people have been de-sensitized in this world with watching violent movies, videos and video games with voice actors screaming on the screen, I assure you the real thing is NOTHING like those canned voices, especially when the person whose screaming is someone your trying to help, or a friend or family member.

When a person screams for their mother, they have reached one of the highest points of fear that the mind can reach that goes beyond panic.

And when they've reached that point, it is usually because they are fully convinced that they are about to die.

It doesn't matter your age or gender, even the elderly have screamed for their mothers just before they died.

There is just something instinctive that when we are at the height of fear, our psyche reaches out to the one who made us feel the most secure in our life. There are some men and women in this world, that don't deserve to be parents, but even then, when a person is most afraid, they'll call out to even the worst mom or dad in the world regardless.

So when I heard the hysterical voice of a young girl screaming for her mother, I admit, I didn't keep my cool and make entry into the room the way the guys taught me back in Nevada when they first taught me CQB.

Instead of FOCUSING on what I needed to do,… I reacted.

AND I KICKED IN THE F_CKING DOOR.

* * *

Saeko had just taken out the last two attackers after rushing into the foyer with Shizuka in front of the faculty lounge.

They had found two teens, a young boy and a teenage girl with shocking-pink hair surrounded by "Them", and they were in dire need of help as the young girl was in a state of hysterics trying to fend off an Infected teacher with a battery-powered drill, while the young boy seemed to be struggling to fix some sort of home-made gun that was obviously not working.

They had arrived just as another pair of teens also did, another male, that Saeko recognized and another female.

Working together, they had managed to dispatch the attackers very quickly, with Saeko using her bokken, the other girl using a mop handle as a spear, and the young boy, Komuro was his name, who bashed in the head of one of "Them" with a baseball bat.

Saeko let out a breath in relief, happy that they had been in time to save the first couple from the clutches of the Infected students when suddenly, the door behind her swung open and hit the wall with a crash that startled all of them.

Saeko and the other teens flinched at the sound and also at the sight of a very big adult moving swiftly into the room with an assault rifle leveled at them.

It was the same man that she and Shizuka had seen outside earlier, and seeing him this close and pointing his weapon at her caused Saeko and the rest to freeze for a moment as the man quickly swept the room with his carbine.

He then started moving with his rifle leveled towards the teenage girl who was still fending off the Infected teacher with the drill, blood and brain matter splattering on her clothes and in all directions.

Recovering from her shock, Saeko gripped her bokken in anticipation of having to go on the offensive if the man posed a threat.

Instead, the armed man walked up to the Infected teacher and kicked him against the wall away from the blood-splattered girl.

The obviously in shock teenage girl then sank to her knees, staring emptily into space as the big man, turned away from the teacher who was no longer moving, and kneeled down in front of the girl after he lowered his rifle.

"Hey sweetie. You OK?" The man said in English, in a very calming voice as the pink-haired girl stared straight ahead, not answering him.

And as the young girl continued to stare vacantly into space, the man spoke again, this time, in Japanese.

"Musume, daijobu desu ka?" he asked her again.

* * *

Saya felt as if she was in a bad dream. She could see shapes of people and hear people speaking, but couldn't tell what they were saying or see who they were because they seemed so far away.

"Where am I?" she thought in her head. "What's going on? I'm supposed to be in school, what am I doing here? I'm going to be late. I can't be late. I can't get a bad report. Papa, will get mad. Why is everything so blurry?

A rather large shadow entered Saya's field of view but she couldn't see a face.

"Who are you?" she wondered.

The shadow spoke to her, but she couldn't comprehend the words. Then Saya heard the shadow say to her very gently, "Daughter, are you all right?"

"Papa? Saya thought to herself, slowly coming out of her shock.

"No, it can't be Papa." Saya thought, as shock turned to terror. " Papa doesn't act so nice to me."

"You're not my Papa!" Saya 's mind began to scream." Get away! NO! The MONSTERS! GET AWAY!"

"GET AWAY!" Saya screeched.

* * *

I quickly backed away from the young girl who had just snapped out of her shock finally, as it now looked like she was on the verge of a complete emotional meltdown.

I had entered the room after kicking the door out of the way, and then I made a quick sweep of the left side of the room and then to my right and quickly saw that there were six teens standing in the middle of the room, with a bunch of Infected students lying on the floor.

Remarkably, it appeared as if all the threats had been neutralized by the teens before I had made my dramatic crash into the room.

"Wow." I thought. "Not bad for a bunch of kids."

The danger was not completely over though, as one of the teenage girls at the far side of the foyer was trying to fight off an infected adult by impaling him in the skull with a power drill.

The Infected teacher was still moving somewhat, and since all the other threats were down, I quickly moved past the other teens and knocked him over with my boot, away from the young girl who seemed to be at her wit's end.

As the body crashed to the floor, I aimed my carbine at him and did a quick check to make sure he was down for good with a kick to the side, with no response from the blood splattered corpse.

Since he was no longer moving, I then focused my attention to the young pink-haired teen kneeling on the floor.

She didn't appear to have been bitten as far as I could see, and I also noticed that she was staring vacantly into space, indicating she was deep in the throes of traumatic emotional shock.

I knelt down next to her trying to make sure she was alright, since all of us might have to leave this place in a hurry, and if this girl didn't snap out of her shock, then getting her and the rest of the teens out safely could be increasingly difficult.

My attempts to approach her calmly and ease her out of shock failed, as she suddenly snapped out of her shock and started screaming at me to "GET AWAY", I guessed ,from the way she was trying to scurry away from me.

I got up and backed off hoping that by doing so, she'd eventually be able to calm down before I was forced to give her a sedative to calm her.

Hopefully, though, it was just temporary shock from what had just happened and not an irreversible psychotic episode she would never recover from.

Or maybe it was just my appearance that scared her.

I hope not. I didn't think I was THAT ugly.

* * *

As I stood up, the young brown-haired girl with the spear, and the teacher that I had seen earlier, ran over to the young girl on the floor and roughly brushed by a chubby kid armed with some sort of nail gun, bowling him over as they both ran towards the girl in order to try to calm her down.

Not wanting to be injured in the process of helping the young teen, I walked away a short distance to give the girl a chance to recover from her shock gradually without having to relapse after seeing my ugly mug.

As I stood there watching over all of them, I noticed that all the kids in the room were looking at me as if I were some sort of monster too.

Well, I guess I couldn't blame them.

Not often you see a heavily armed man busting into a campus on a school day in Japan I guess.

Trying to convince them that I was no threat, I gave them a weak smile and turned towards the hallway to make sure it was clear, and stayed there while they gathered themselves together.

I was actually pretty impressed with them. They had managed to defend themselves despite the craziness of what was going on and managed to stay alive while most of the school and the city for that matter, was now Infected with whatever sickness this was.

After making sure there was no threat from the hallway, I walked back towards the door I had busted through.

One of the two teenage boys, the taller skinnier one, had just closed the door and I gave him a friendly smile and nodded my head towards him in a friendly gesture as he nodded his head as well and then walked past me over to the other kids.

I then just stood there and pretended to look out through the door as if I were watching the Infected outside shuffling around in all directions.

"Good." I thought. "They weren't attracted by any noise."

I was really glad I hadn't had to shoot my carbine to be honest. I still had plenty of ammo, but if these things were attracted by sound, then the report from my carbine would have been like ringing the dinner bell.

* * *

"Who is HE?" Takashi asked Saeko, as all the teens stared at the armed man standing by the exit door.

Shizuka was still attending to the girl who was still freaking out at the carnage, and the attention of the teens was on the newcomer, a possible ally.

Or, a possible threat.

"I don't know." Saeko responded.

"I was out on the walkway headed here with Shizuka-sensei when we saw him waving at us from the fence line. He was walking over to us when we heard her scream." Saeko said, pointing towards Saya as Shizuka was trying to console her.

"Is he a soldier?" Asked Rei, her hands clutching Takashi's arm as she watched the man standing silently in front of the doors looking out the glass, his rifle cradled in his arms. "He looks like one. Has he been fighting THEM, or is he something else altogether?"

"Whoever he is, we need to be careful and watch his every move. Until we know for sure who he is, everyone be on your guard." Takashi said as both of the girls nodded their heads in agreement.

"Uhm, ano? Are you alright?" Saeko asked the teenage boy with the glasses that Shizuka had knocked to the floor earlier.

The young man was mesmerized by the sight of the man standing by the door, his eyes looking like they were about to pop out of his head.

"SUGE!" Kouta was screaming with glee inside his head. "LOOK at all those WICKED,COOL GUNS he HAS!

* * *

(A few minutes later.)

* * *

"By the way, you already know the school nurse, neh?" Saeko said to the skinny teenage boy. "I'm Busujima, Saeko from Class 3-A" she continued.

"Komuro, Takashi from Class 3-B." Takashi replied.

"Busujima sempai, I remember you won the national championship last year." The brown –haired girl said. "I'm Miyamoto, Rei . With the sojutsu club. "

"Uhm,….I'm Hirano, Kouta." The young chubby teen with the glasses stammered nervously.

"Pleased to meet you." Saeko said, smiling sweetly.

"Whoa." Kouta thought. "She actually TALKED to me!" He thought overwhelmed with joy to be acknowledged by one of the high school's top ten most beautiful girls

With the exception of Saya and Shizuka who was still kneeling next to her, all of the teens looked at the silent sentry standing by the doors.

"Ano." Takashi asked the man hesitantly. "Who are you?"

When the man didn't respond, Takashi asked him again who he was a little louder this time, and the man, sensing that he was being spoken to, turned his head and looked at the teens.

"Excuse me, we were just wondering who you were and where you come from." Takashi said.

The man looked at Takashi with a puzzled expression on his face for a moment as he seemed unable to comprehend Takashi's words.

"Gomen nasai." The man said in a strange accent that was unfamiliar to Takashi. "Nihongo O sukoshi hanashimasu. Eigo O hanashimasu ka?" The man asked with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

* * *

"HAI! I mean,YES! I speak English!" Rei said with some enthusiasm in her voice. My name is Miyamoto, Rei. Pleased to meet you sir."

"ME TOO!" Kouta said with a LOT of enthusiasm in his voice, as now it seemed clear that the man was not unfriendly, but was just not able to speak fluently in Japanese.

Speaking in English Kouta burst forth in a flood of questions that came streaming out of his mouth faster than tracers from a minigun.

"Are you American? You sound like an American! WOW! Your carrying a Mark 18 carbine! That's a favorite of the American Special Forces! Are you American Military? SPECIAL FORCES?! WHICH ONE?! DELTA FORCE? SEALS?! GREEN BERETS?! RANGERS?! MARINES?! WHOA! YOU HAVE AN M24 SNIPER RIFLE TOO! ARE YOU A SNIPER?! ARE YOU ON A MISSION?! CAN I HOLD IT?!"

"I ALSO speak English." Saeko said politely, intentionally interrupting Kouta's hyper-enthusiastic stream of questioning. My name is Busujima, Saeko. Pleased to meet you, sir."

"Hi Guys." The man replied, trying obviously trying to be friendly. "My names Jim, and yes young fella, I'm an American."

"Sorry to disappoint though buddy, but I'm just a medic." The American continued. " And I'm just passing through."

"Pleased to meet ya'll too gang." The man said nodding his head in a sort of bow.

"How about you son?" The man asked, his question directed towards Takashi. "You speak English too?"

"My English,is not very good." Takashi stammered, looking a little embarrassed.

"Ah, no problem buddy." The American said good-naturedly. " Neither's my Japanese. I'm sure the young ladies can make sure we get our conversations straight. He said with a wink."

"I take it ya'll are students here?" the man asked in his strange accent.

"Yes sir, we are." Saeko said politely. "And this is the school nurse, Marikawa, Shizuka."

"Ma'am." The American said nodding his head to the nurse as she smiled back at him.

"Well guys, I'm extremely happy to have stumbled across ya'll, because I haven't see anyone that didn't want to take a bite out of me, or shoot me in the butt for the past few hours."

The teens all laughed at the man's attempt at humor.

* * *

"Nice bunch of kids." I thought.

At this point, I was just happy to see a friendly face. And quite frankly, even though they were just school kids, when your lost and all alone in a hostile environment with a whole city full of unfriendly's out for blood, you take your friends where you can find them.

However, our happy moment wasn't to last as the young girl who had been slowly recovering from her shock burst out suddenly in a slew of angry words vented towards us as she was now no longer numb with fear but was now venting her rage at us with a vengeance.

The very polite, raven-haired girl with the bokken walked over to the screaming girl and put her hand on her shoulder, speaking softly, trying to calm her as the girl's anger was finally spent and she once again stared vacantly into space.

She then suddenly saw her reflection in the mirrored back of a broken trophy case, and noticed her blood-stained clothes. She then started brushing her clothes as if to wipe away the blood on them talking to herself as she did so.

Finally, the last of her shock wore away and the floodgates poured forth as she collapsed against the girl named Saeko's chest and started to cry.

I looked over at the group surrounding the young girl as her wails echoed down the long hallway.

I felt sorry for her as I'm sure everyone else in the lonely hallway did.

Only the most callous person in the world could not sympathize with her tears of fear and pain. She was just an innocent kid who came to school like she normally did every day, going through the same routine like everyone else in the city, and suddenly her life was dramatically changed not by some natural disaster, but by the world turning on its head and people she had known and seen every day were now killing each other.

We, as human beings can only take so much horror before our inner walls collapse upon themselves and the fear and grief we try to hold back gush forward in a flood that once unleashed, cannot be stopped until the hysteria abates itself on its own.

This poor girl had finally reached her breaking point twice in one day. And even though I was afraid the noise would attract unwanted company, I let the girl get it out of her system.

In truth, I wondered how long it would be before the rest of us reached our breaking point.

It doesn't matter your age or how strong you think you are. We all have our breaking point. It's really just a matter of time, before any of us finally reaches that point really.

After a short while, the girl's wails died down to quiet sobs, and then after a few sniffs and wiping her face with her sleeves, the girl looked at the rest of us and quietly nodded her head.

She had let all her anguish out, and was now ready to put all this behind her. The young raven-haired girl helped her to her feet as I finally got the words formed together to voice my concern.

"Minna-san." I said in Japanese. "Abunai-dayo. Ikimasho-ka?"

("Everyone. It's dangerous here. Shall we go?")

Everyone looked at me and nodded their heads. Since I really had no clue as to where to go, I looked at the teacher and asked her in what I hoped was "Sensei, where do we go?"

"Sensei, doko ikimasu ka?" I said hoping they'd be able to understand my words despite my South Texas twang.

* * *

"Ah!" Shizuka said in response to the American's query in his rough Japanese.

"You want to know where we are going?" Right over here, my car keys are in this room. Come in everyone!" Shizuka said cheerfully, as she nonchalantly walked to the faculty room doors and grabbed the door handle.

Everyone's eyes went wide as the school nurse, absent-mindedly grabbed the door handle and yanked the door open, allowing two Infected teachers to come from behind the doors, moaning and reaching for the blond woman with jaws agape.

"SENSEI!" Rei yelled in warning, as the sudden loud roar of gunfire echoed in the foyer.

BLAM! BLAM!

BLAM! BLAM!

Everyone screamed and flinched involuntarily as four quick, loud reports from the American's rifle blasted in the foyer like thunder claps that had their ears ringing as the shots echoed down the length of the hallway and to the rest of the school.

The two Infected teachers fell to the floor in a heap as the American swiftly and silently as a ghost rushed forward with the rifle at his shoulder, blinding everyone with the glow of a very bright light mounted on the side of his rifle that he switched on as he moved forward to the door and then disappeared into the dark room, once again firing his rifle as he did before, firing two rapid shots twice in succession, as the flash of his rifle lit up the room each time he fired his rifle.

"Double-taps." Kouta thought.

Shizuka was stunned at what had just happened, her hand still holding the door open as the American disappeared through it.

"Ara?" She said, a little dazed.

* * *

"SHUT THE DOOR! SHUT THE DOOR! Saya screamed, as she rushed past Saeko, slamming her body against the door knocking the handle violently from the school nurse's grasp and nearly knocking her down in the process as Saya tried to shut the door with the weight of her body, struggling to push against the hydraulic arms that prevented the doors from closing too swiftly.

"TAKAGI-SAN!" Kouta yelled as he watched Saya pressing her body against the door trying to force them closed, inadvertently trapping the American inside alone with who knew how many Infected still moving around in there.

"SAYA, NO!" Everyone screamed in horror at seeing Saya's panicked attempt to shut the door and pressed forward to try to stop her.

Saya however, was in panic mode again and in her hysteria, her mind could only focus on one thing.

"THEY'LL HEAR THE NOISE! THEY'LL HEAR THE NOISE! THEY'LL HEAR! THEY'LL HEEEEAR!"

As the door was almost nearly shut, a large hand suddenly clamped down on the door right near Saya's face, as she pressed her body against it. Everyone screamed and jumped back at the sudden sight of the hand on the door which caused Saya, who was still pressing against it, to scream loud and long as the door was easily pushed open by the figure behind it.

The four teens behind Saya, immediately raised their weapons, poised to strike at the horror coming from within, as the American suddenly popped his head out from behind the door and looked at them quizzically.

"All clear guys." The big man said calmly as he opened the door with his right hand, the very same one that had scared Saya half to death, while he dragged the body of an infected teacher by the shirt collar with the other.

"Just give me a second to get the bodies out of the way kids, and ya'll can go right in." the man said casually.

"Oh, by the way." The man said halting at the door, as he stooped down to stare at Saya directly in the face not less than three inches from her nose, his eyes narrowing to slits.

"Is there some particular reason WHY you were trying to lock me up in here now, pumpkin?" The man asked Saya with a not-so- amused look on his face.

* * *

Authors notes:

Hey guys, I managed to finish this chapter early. I had hoped to have it finished by Sunday, but I got it out a little earlier. WOO! HOO!

I've been encouraged by your warm reviews from all of you and from my younger brother who got a chance to read my story too, and it's been a real source of encouragement for me to keep on writing this story. Thanks guys I appreciate it.

Writing this story was a little hard for me though. In this job, we are no strangers to people's pain and we see a lot of it. In a small way, I tried to write how anguishing it really is to hear someone calling for help, and as I did so, a few memories of some bad experiences I encountered caused me to put away the laptop for a while. But the whole point of this story is not to dwell on pain and suffering but rather to focus on the good that is done by complete strangers in an overwhelming situation, so I try to put some humor in each chapter as I go along to keep the story from being to grim.

As you can see, there will be some trust issues between the kids and my character especially with Saya, which as one of the other members suggested might call for some attitude adjustment by Jim and Rika later. By the way, for all the kind people who have posted a review and for those who listed me on the "favorites", if any of you wish to offer any ideas or suggestions for the story or would like to be in the story yourself, send me a PM. I would especially like to hear from my overseas fans as well. In this story, the British SAS and some NATO forces will be involved later, so if you're from overseas and would like your name put in the story, lemmee know. I'll try to work it in when the time comes for that part of the story. Thanks again guys for your support. And I'll get started on the next chapter!

BTW,

Yes, I took a few liberties on some things. In the anime, Takashi closes the door leading into the foyer that is obviously CLEAR GLASS, and swings OUTWARD. Also, the door leading into the teacher's lounge is a SLIDING door vs. the one in my story that is a double door with hydraulic arms.

What can I say? I like my version better. LOL.

Anyway, thanks again to all of you for reading my fanfic. I really appreciate the support!


	8. Chapter 7-The Man from the Alamo City

Last Alarm-Chapter Seven

The Man from the Alamo City

* * *

"Primum non nocere"

Latin for " Do No Harm " - First Principle of Emergency Medicine

* * *

"Son, for the** last** time, I'm **not **a soldier." I said to the young spectacled teen, who was still hounding me to see if I was a Spec Ops warrior.

Evidently the kid, was a real fan of Special Operations. And nothing I said could convince him otherwise. And as friendly as he was, he was starting to get on my nerves a bit.

* * *

"So you're not in the American Army?" He asked finally, the wheels still turning in his head.

"Nope." I replied, relieved that I had finally reached a breakthrough with my young friend.

Then you must be American Navy! You're a SEAL then?! AWESOME! How did you get here?! Did you swim from a ship?! No? A submarine maybe? I know! You HALO'ed here!"

"Kouta!" I exclaimed, starting to feel really embarrassed by this line of questioning by now.

Although in truth, I really couldn't blame the kid for thinking I was an American commando the way I was dressed and equipped. It was an easy mistake to make with all the news footage and documentaries of Special Operations guys walking around looking the same way I did that people saw on CNN and the Discovery Channel.

Thing was, I wasn't trying to pass myself off as something I wasn't, as in this case, trying to pass myself off as an American commando.

I was just dressed and equipped the same as the rest of the guys.

And as far as the beard was concerned?

Well, I was just trying to blend in with the rest of the guys on my team and not stand out. Although to be honest, I was really considering shaving it off.

After 25 years of being clean-shaven in the Fire Department I really wasn't all that used to having a beard, and I have to say, the sucker itched like hell.

* * *

Yes, I have to admit that I was dressed in attire just like the rest of the guys in GREEN Team which, no matter which way you looked at it, we WERE a bunch of "mercenaries". So yes, we all dressed accordingly, which isn't hard because anyone can step into a department store and buy a polo-shirt and tactical cargo pants and combat boots anywhere.

As a matter of fact, I had bought all my clothes from the same place I got my Fire Dept. uniforms and where all the Police and SWAT teams get their stuff. And funny thing is, I had been wearing polo shirts and tactical cargo pants for years, long before I ever dreamt of the possibility of my ever being a PMC.

The only difference now was color. Since we were supposed to be going to Africa for this Op, I was dressed entirely in khaki-colored clothing; instead of the navy blue stuff I'd worn most of my life.

Yes, I was equipped with weapons and gear that were also still currently issued and in use by the United States Military, as well as its allies.

It only made sense; the Private Security Company I worked for was made up of former Military personnel who were vastly experienced with what worked and what didn't.

I mean honestly, you can't expect to run a "Private Security Company" operated by "Private Military Contractors" without weapons.

It ain't like being one of the security guards you see at a shopping mall.

Third World countries are the most dangerous places for a foreigner to be in, much less for a foreigner who is supposed to be providing security in or around a war zone.

Mace and a police whistle just aren't going to be enough, believe me.

* * *

Yes, I had employed the same tactics (well, rather clumsily I admit) that were used by commandos the world over, to clear the room of the Infected teachers.

Yes, I was now technically, a "private contractor" while I worked with the company, but realistically, I was nothing more than a back-up medic for a "Security Team".

Geez, I wasn't even a Firefighter anymore.

And the last thing I wanted was to meet up with any of the guys on "Blue" or "Green" Team or any American Military servicemen for that matter, somewhere in Japan with this kid spouting off to everyone that I was an American commando on a covert mission.

Friendlies or not, they'd beat the hell out of me for it.

* * *

The folks in the Military and especially the Spec Ops guys, earn their title the same way a fireman, policeman or a paramedic earns theirs, with hard work and determination. Anyone claiming to be a commando and isn't, well, heaven help him when they find him.

While I've always had a special place in my heart for the guys in the SEAL Teams and the rest of the Special Operations people, including the "Boy's from Hereford" across the "Pond". I've never tried to pass myself off as one, nor have I ever claimed to be in the military.

But as many times as I tried to convince the kid I was just a medic, the kid was just as thoroughly convinced that I was just trying to be covert and trying to avoid blowing my non-existent cover.

Of course all my weapons and gear really didn't help my argument to the contrary very much.

* * *

"Kouta, son. LOOK." I said, trying to be patient, and also, trying not to burst the kid's bubble too harshly.

"I'm NOT SPECIAL FORCES. I'm NOT DELTA. I'm NOT a SEAL. I'm NOT Marine Force Recon. I'm NOT an Air Force Para-Rescue Jumper. I'm NOT a commando."

" I'm not EVEN MILITARY,… PERIOD!

"Okay?" I said a little exasperated by this time.

I don't know how much more plain I could put it with the teen who kept looking at me with the worst case of hero worship I've ever seen in a kid. Not even when I was a fireman did anyone ever look up to me like that.

The kid got real quiet for a moment, as he seemed to ponder my words. And then I saw his eyes light up, and the smile on his face threatened to split his head in two.

"Oh crap." I thought.

"AH! Then you're C.I.A. then?! THAT IS SO COOL! ARE YOU ON A MISSION?! DOES IT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEM?! WERE YOU COMPROMISED?! CAN I HELP?!

"I give up." I said shaking my head in resignation.

* * *

Saeko, Shizuka and Rei giggled at the American's efforts to convince Kouta that he really wasn't an American soldier. They honestly didn't know which was more entertaining, the American's efforts to convince Kouta that he wasn't a warrior, or Kouta's efforts to try to prove that the American was.

"What's so funny?" Takashi asked from his chair.

"Our American friend is still trying to convince Hirano-kun that he's not an American serviceman." Saeko explained staring at the medic who had just covered his face with his hands and was making sounds as if he were crying, as Kouta continued to assail him with a slew of questions.

"And it's not going very well, I'm afraid." Saeko said, modestly covering her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud, tears forming in her eyes.

Takashi looked over the desk hutch covered in textbooks, and finally saw what was amusing the girls so much and chuckled, as Rei and Shizuka were already laughing hysterically at the American, who was leaning over the long teacher's desk banging his head on the hard surface as if he was trying to beat his brains out of his head as Kouta relentlessly questioned him over and over about various technical military subjects.

"I still don't see what's so funny about a heavily armed man we've never met before sitting in here with us, while we sit here acting as if it's no big deal." Saya said grumpily.

"Takagi." Takashi said looking at her. "He's done nothing for us to believe he's going to harm any of us. Why are you so mad at him? He didn't even get angry with you when you tried to shut him in here."

Saya scowled at Takashi's remark and balled her hands into fists.

* * *

The American had looked at Saya as if he were royally pissed at her when she had attempted to close the door on him, and as he stooped to stare at her face barely three inches from her nose, she had expected the man to burst into anger and scream obscenities at her.

Bracing herself for the expected verbal assault, the man simply stared at her for a moment, then winked, and said, "Aw, don't worry about it sweetie." And then he kissed her gently on her forehead and then dragged the body of the Infected teacher out into the foyer. He then came back and dragged the other three Infected teachers outside before checking their surroundings to make sure none of the other Infected were approaching their side of the building in reaction to the gunshots.

Once he was satisfied that there would be no unwelcome visitors, they then all gathered in the faculty room and blocked the doors with tables and heavy boxes of printing paper, and then settled down to catch their breath. Since then, the man had been nothing less than absolutely friendly with all of them, and had said nothing more about the matter. Naturally, it had aroused Saya's suspicious nature.

Americans were strange people Saya thought. But THIS man's behavior was even more puzzling.

* * *

"I don't trust him is all." Saya said pointedly. "He smashes in here, shoots his guns all over the place, scares us half to death, and then won't tell us WHO he is, WHERE he's from, WHY he's here, or WHAT he plans to do with us. AREN'T ANY OF YOU CONCERNED AT ALL?" Saya said, a little too loudly.

"I admit, I am a little concerned as to who he is and how he came to be here, and also where he acquired the weapons he has in his possession." Saeko said in a serious tone. "However, I am in agreement with Komuro-kun. He has not shown any aggression towards any of us, and since he has done nothing to indicate he means us any harm, it would not be fair to assume he is an enemy merely for the fact that he is a stranger to our country."

"Takagi-san brings up a good point though." Rei said, a worried look on her face. "He's been awfully vague about himself, and even though he says he's a "medic". I don't understand what kind of "medic" he could possibly be so heavily armed as he is, unless he was working with the military or police. It just doesn't make any sense."

"I believe that if he meant any of us any harm, he would have certainly done so by now." Shizuka added. "He definitely has the means to force his will upon us any time he wishes. So why would he bother to wait? And as far as his being vague about himself, none of us have really asked him anything other than his name and where he is from. It's been mostly Kouta-chan whose been doing most of the talking with him. Perhaps we should not speculate and just voice our concerns to him, instead of assuming the worst and jumping to conclusions."

The five teens stared at Shizuka with a look that vaguely resembled shock. Shizuka noticing the look on their faces suddenly became very self-conscious of their staring at her.

* * *

"Ano, did I say something wrong?" She said, suddenly afraid.

"On the contrary, your reasoning was actually quite insightful, Marikawa-sensei." Saeko said. "Forgive us, we were just a little,…..taken aback, by your excellent assessment of the situation."

"Oh, that's OK." Shizuka said good-naturedly. "Sometimes things just go "pop" in my head."

"Well, that was a good "pop" there Shizuka-san." The American said, his voice slightly muffled as he still had his head lying on the desk as he interrupted their conversation. "And I for one, am glad you came up with it, otherwise things would have gone on being unnecessarily tense around here with ya'll thinking I'm gonna turn on you at any second."

"How did you know what we were saying if you DON'T speak our language!" Saya said accusingly, once again in offensive mode.

"I said I don't speak Japanese very well." The man said with his head still lying on the table facing away from them. "I didn't say I was COMPLETELY ignorant of your language. I got enough from listening to ya'll's conversation that everyone is concerned about my possibly being a threat to each of you, which I admit, stands to reason."

"Your saying you figured out that out all by yourself?" Saya said acidly.

"Takagi!" Takashi snapped. "What is wrong with you? Stop it!"

I wasn't sure what the young girl with the shocking pink hair and spectacles was so upset about, but her tone wasn't a very pleasant one. Things have sure changed since the time I grew up and we were raised to respect our elders. I guess" time-outs" are effective for somebody, somewhere, I suppose.

But where I'm from, if this young girl had started mouthing off the way she was currently doing, her disrespectful little butt would have been formally introduced to the business end of a *chancla.

( * A chancla is a mexican thick-soled sandal commonly called "flip-flops" nowadays).

* * *

Takashi was shocked at the behavior of the young girl with the shocking pink hair blowing up in anger at the American.

"Why is she acting this way?" Takashi wondered.

"Actually pumpkin." The man said pointing to Kouta without lifting his head. "Your classmate here is a pretty good interpreter when he's not too busy asking me a million questions about stuff that I know absolutely nothing about."

Saya glared at Kouta as he gulped and looked away.

"You fat BAKA!" Saya snapped at Kouta.

"Now, now. Don't be taking your anger out on him." The man said as he lifted his head off the desk and rubbed his eyes. He then sat up straight in his chair then swung it around to face all of them and then leaned back with his hands behind his head.

"You kids could have saved yourselves a LOT of trouble by just talking to me directly instead of assuming the worst and thinking that I'm a threat to each and every one of ya'll , just because I'm a stranger and happen to dress, act, and talk funny."

"Not to mention being heavily ARMED!" Saya said sarcastically.

"Well yeah, that too." The man said sheepishly.

"Look, guys, ….and ladies." I said looking towards the women in the room.

Let me start from the beginning. My full name is Jimmy Campa Trevino. I'm forty-four years old, and I really AM a medic with a Security Company."

I chose not to use the phrase "Private Security Contractor," because Kouta was already wearing me down as it was, trying to prove that I was an SOF operator.

I also chose not to reveal my real name to the kids either and instead, stuck to the name "Jimmy Campa Trevino" which was what was on all my fake I.D.'s anyway, just in case the authorities did catch up to us.

Considering the type of work I was now involved in as a "Security Contractor"and would obviously be required to work covertly at times, I really couldn't expect to maintain my anonymity working in a foreign country by carrying my Texas Driver's License with my real name and address on it for all the world to see.

I'm not here to hurt or harm you in any way, guys." I continued. " As you can already see, I'm obviously not from around here. I'm an American from Texas originally. The plane I was on broke down and we landed at Tokonosu Airport for repairs, and around 3:40 A.M. we were attacked by our friends outside who had somehow gotten on the island.

We got away on a helicopter and crash-landed in your city, and were attacked again by these things. I then got separated from my team,…STOP. " The man interjected, pointing at Kouta as he was about to ask him a question.

"I meant to say FRIENDS." He said as Kouta looked down at the floor disappointed.

He then continued after giving Kouta a friendly clap on the shoulder. "I got separated from my FRIENDS, and I made it all the way up here and found ya'll. Ok?"

"That still doesn't answer where you got all those guns." Saya said acidly. "Did they just magically fall into your hands from the sky?"

"I suppose if this whole story were some sort of fairy tale, then they would have, sweetie." I said trying to ease the tension by making a joke. "But as far as why I have all these guns, remember, I did say I was from Texas, after all, pumpkin."

"QUIT CALLING ME THAT! Saya screeched.

* * *

The man stopped to look at Saya as the smile disappeared from his face. "Young lady, there's no need to get all upset over something so small as that ,and there's definitely no reason to be so rude to me the way you've been. If you don't like me being nice to you, just say so."

"How is calling me a pumpkin, being nice?!" Saya said, a severe scowl on her face.

The man's smile returned and he chuckled as he then explained. "Well hon, where I'm from most folks usually have a "pet" name for young people such as yourself. It's just an expression of affection, kind of like "Honey", or "sweetie", or something like that. "Pumpkin" is just another one of those expressions. And I've been calling you that because I just wanted to be friendly."

I don't know why I did it, actually no, that's not true. I do know why. I was angry with this young girl, who just a while ago I had come running to help when she screamed in fear. And ever since then I've been on the receiving end of her wrath for no apparent reason. I've had to put up with that crap for years from hundreds of people in my life and quite frankly, I'd had enough.

Good thing for her there wasn't a chancla lying around.

* * *

"Of course, the way you've been talking to me right now young lady." The man said his face turning serious. " I'm starting to think the name "Pumpkin" fits you in a completely different way." I said , no longer being friendly.

"What way is THAT?" Saya asked heatedly, her eyes narrowing to slits.

" Pumpkin," as in you got a big head that looks pretty impressive to most people at first, but in reality is really all hollow inside, and except for a few small seeds of knowledge rolling around in there, you really don't have much else to offer." The man said unsmiling.

All the people in the room gasped in shock at the man's insult to the young teen. Saya was completely taken off guard by the man's candor and was at first speechless.

But as the sting from the insult started to boil over into rage, Saya readied herself to unleash a vicious onslaught of insults back at the man and opened her mouth to do so when the man quickly got up of his chair and stood three feet in front of Saya so quickly everyone else thought he was going to strike her.

Saya was intimidated at the sight of the big man towering over her and found herself unable to speak. All the others in the room tensed, not knowing what the American was going to do.

The expression on the man's face was serious and his tone was not as pleasant as before, as he began to speak.

* * *

"BEFORE you open your mouth and say something that you'll regret young lady, I want you to think about this the next time you open your mouth around me with that sharp tongue of yours. "

"One, I'm an adult, and as an adult, I'm worthy of some sort of respect even if you don't like me. Your friends here have been nothing but polite to me since I've met them and NOT ONCE have they been as rude to me as you have been. And I for one, haven't done anything but treat you as if you were my own daughter since I met you. THAT fact alone at least entitles me to SOME form of common courtesy if nothing else, and you haven't even done that."

"Two, I understand your fear. Things are going to shit everywhere and you're stuck here away from your home and family with a bunch of strangers. I GET IT! But guess what, so are the rest of us, and you're not gonna accomplish anything by pushing away the very people who are trying to help you, understand?"

" Three, I realize I'm probably one scary looking S.O.B. and I don't look like I can be trusted, but even if that were true and I AM a threat, you're not helping yourself by pissing me off, now does any of this make sense to you, Saya-CHAN?" I said, emphasizing the "CHAN" part.

The young girl was looking at me with visible anger still in her eyes which told me her anger was clouding over her judgment right now, and continuing to lecture her would solve nothing at this point until we both cooled off.

I really don't like being rude to people, and I really do love children, and I was really starting to like these teens a lot, but this young girl's behavior was not only intolerable, it was dangerous, because it could potentially cause serious problems for our survival if she was going to be fighting and instigating bad feelings amongst ourselves, which would only result in derision amongst the group that in our present situation, would eventually be more fatal to our survival than a bite from an Infected person or a bullet.

"Answer me young lady." I said deepening the tone of my voice.

I had to hand it to her, the girl was one tough cookie. She looked me directly in the eye and said in a very low voice barely containing her anger. "Yes."

"Yes WHAT, Saya-CHAN?" I said. I was really mad now.

"Yes,… sir." She said, still looking at me with such hate-filled eyes that tears started to run down her cheeks.

I sighed and shook my head. It wasn't till she looked at me with those angry eyes and the tears falling from her face that I realized my mistake.

* * *

I had humiliated her, and by doing so, I might have ruined any chance of smoothing over Saya's and everyone else's fears about me and quite possibly ruined any chances of these people trusting me if I was going to get this upset over this young girl's bad manners. Yes, she had been rude, but her mistrust was understandable, and I could have done a better job of putting everyone's fears to rest. Instead, I had just put everyone on edge. This I DIDN'T want.

It wasn't about control, it wasn't about showing off, or who was boss, hell, it wasn't even about common courtesy. I just wanted this girl to open her eyes and see that while she had some good points about being cautious about the people around her, she was also making a bad situation worse that would only end up in her and others getting hurt or killed once we left this place.

Arguing amongst each other in the middle of an entire city full of Infected people trying to kill you is a sure way to end up dead. We needed to stop this whole back-biting crap before we left this room otherwise we weren't going to make it past the gates. But instead, I got upset, and made a simple misunderstanding a hell of a lot worse. And even if I was completely in the right, I could have been more mature about the whole thing and handled it better.

But the damage was done, and unless we both backed off and cooled down, it was just going to get worse.

"Okay." I said backing away from her as I reached for my pack and pulled out a small pouch with some of my personal items in it. "I'm gonna go wash-up and cool off a bit, and so are YOU Saya-chan." I said pointing at her.

"And when I get back, we are all going to end this animosity bullshit once and for all and get the air cleared between us. ALL of us." I said looking at the group in front of me. "Otherwise," I continued.

"None of us are going to survive the night."

* * *

I walked into the tiny bathroom and shut the door. I gave a deep sigh and rubbed my eyes trying to release some of the fatigue I felt. I turned towards the sink and stared at the face of the tired, beat up, haggard-looking man staring back at me in the reflection. I looked like crap, to put it mildly. I was never a morning person in the first place, but I looked I'd just got home from an all-night bender, and I don't even drink.

I lay my carbine by the door and looked at my blood-shot eyes and brushed my salt-pepper beard that I'd been growing the last three months.

Most military and private contractors that are operating overseas nowadays have adopted the "modified grooming standards" that have become the standard look of a man in the field as a Spec Ops Operator. In many countries that Special Operations personnel are currently active, most have allowed their hair to grow a little longer than the normal military standards and have grown beards as well.

The reason for this is to blend in better with the populace in some countries that they operate and also, since many in those countries observe the custom that all men have beards in their culture, the commandos are also able to be more approachable with the local tribesman versus the usual clean cut American soldier. All the guys at Laidlaw wore beards and not wanting to be the odd man out. I had let mine grow out as well. For close to 30 years I had always shaved to go to work and now that I hadn't in three months, I was still always surprised to see my face every time I looked in a mirror. I'm very fortunate for a man over 40. I do have all my hair with a little grey at the temples and all my teeth too. To listen to my other medic buddy Ben, you'd have thought I was falling apart, especially after comments like that crack back at the airport about breaking my hip.

(Thank you Ben, my hip is just fine also. Thanks for asking wherever you are buddy.)

I also look a lot younger than I really am which has led many to believe I'm still in my 30's. The majority of age that is most visible is the grey that I have in my beard, and as I looked at the man in the mirror well, I looked and felt about a hundred.

I really didn't want to argue with any of these kids or make the situation worse than it already was. But, I had allowed myself to get upset and acted just as childish as the young girl crying in the next room and now I felt like such an idiot for letting it happen. It was time for some serious damage control, and I needed to cool off and think hard about how I was going to go about and fix this mess, or we were already dead. I sighed as I heard the kids arguing in the room on the other side of the door. I shook my head and then looked at my reflection in the mirror again and said to the man looking back at me.

"Good job old man, NOW what are you gonna do?" I said.

I stared for a couple moments more and grabbed my razor out of my kit.

* * *

Saya was standing near the window crying and ignoring Takashi as he was trying to reason with her about her behavior towards the American. She was so angry, and with everyone defending the American, no one could see that she was only trying to be helpful and protect them.

The man was a STRANGER, he was ARMED, he was definitely NOT who he claimed to be, and therefore he was DANGEROUS. Couldn't ANY of them see that?

But no, they were all taken with the man's sense of humor and his charm and now they were all against her.

"Why?" She sobbed quietly to herself. "Why are they all being so mean to ME? I was only trying to help."

The sound of the door opening behind her made her jump involuntarily. She was now seriously afraid of the man, and now that everyone was against her, she felt she hadn't a friend in the world. She shivered as she heard the man's footsteps as he came out of the bathroom.

I had stepped out of the bathroom to find a scene that I had hoped I wouldn't see, but unfortunately, it was EXACTLY what I found. I'm no expert on human nature, but I had a feeling about what I would see once I stepped out of the tiny bathroom.

There was Saya, shoulders shaking as she quietly sobbed at the window with her back towards me, and the rest of the group looking VERY uncomfortable standing away from her, probably because she had shooed them away from her.

It was definitely the opposite of what I had wanted when I first met these people less then twenty minutes ago in the hallway. Things had gone from relief and joy at being alive just a little while ago, to absolute shit in record time. And it was really all my fault. It was time for not just damage control, but complete reversal of the situation at hand. Or we were already dead before we even stepped out of this room.

There was a slight gasp from the school nurse when I stepped out of the bathroom and everyone else looked at me in surprise as well, even Saya turned around at their reaction, her eyes as red as red can be, and her face all puffy from crying.

It had taken a while to shave off my beard, but once I did, and washed my face and combed my hair, I looked in the mirror and stared back at a face that still looked like "hammered dog shit" as we used to say back home, but at least I looked more human and less intimidating than I did before. I was hoping that by cleaning up I wouldn't be as intimidating to the kids and help smooth things over somehow. It was a long shot, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

"Wow. He cleans up pretty well for an older guy." Shizuka thought, as the man walked towards Saya. When she had first seen him, she was reminded of the actor from that AWFUL American made movie "SHOGUN" that came out years ago. The actors name was John Rhys-Davies she believed. Now with his beard freshly shaven, he looked a LOT younger. "Maybe if he had just shaved the beard and left a mustache, he might have looked handsomer though." She thought.

I walked over to Saya as she continued to stare down at the floor and sob quietly to herself. It was a situation that if she had been my daughter, I would have never forgiven myself for. No man who really loves his children wants to see them this way, and even though I wasn't this girl's father, it hurt to see her broken down in tears like this. She looked so afraid of me and looked like she believed as if I were going to strike her in anger. She was now so emotionally broken that it wouldn't take much more to drive her over the edge and lose her trust forever.

There were no words that I could use here to make the situation better. In fact, I only knew of one thing that I would do if this young girl had been my daughter, and as far as I was concerned right now,….she might as well have been.

* * *

Everyone held their breath as the big man walked over and stood in front of Saya. The teenage girl looked even tinier than the giant standing in front of her now than she had before. It looked like a bear standing over a scared rabbit just about to deliver a death blow. Then, in a completely unexpected move, the man without a word, embraced Saya in a huge bear hug. The look of surprise on Saya's face turned to anguish again, as Saya started to sob uncontrollably against the man's chest.

"Gomen nasai, Saya-chan." The man said as he held her tight. "I'm sorry sweetie." He continued, as Saya continued to sob as he stroked her hair with his hand as he held her close.

The teens were all shocked and touched as well by the man's actions. They had fully expected another angry repeat of the same argument earlier.

In fact, Takashi had already formed in his mind what he was going to say to end the argument between the two, but with the American's sudden gesture of humility and kindness, it seemed the situation was now pretty much resolved, much to everyone's relief.

As I held the young sobbing teen in my arms, I really felt heart-felt regret, that this had all happened in the first place. My biggest regret in life and one that always brings me the most sadness is that I never married and had children of my own. It is the one thing in my life I wanted more than anything else and to this day is my biggest heart break. Now as I'm older, what makes being alone extremely tough for me is not so much the love of a woman that isn't there. But the love that I've always wanted to give to my children that I can't because there are none to give it to.

And as I held this poor girl in my arms I felt so very ashamed that I had just added to this girl's grief instead of being the mature one and trying to peacefully resolve this issue instead of snapping back at her and making things worse. I would not have wanted to do this to my own children, and I always cursed and hated people who treated their children this way and never gave it a second thought to the pain and misery they were heaping on their child. I had seen it countless times. And I had experienced it myself as well, throughout most of my life.

I had vowed, that if I was ever blessed with a family of my own, I'd never have my children so afraid of me that they'd be broken down and crying like this poor girl. And yet, here we were, and my own vow came back to haunt me. And it cut me like a knife that I had done the very thing that I prayed I never would. Bring sadness to a child when she was in despair and needed me the most.

I prayed I wouldn't make this same mistake again. Yet, I knew, even after we had made up and things would hopefully be good between us once again and I could get her and her friends back to their families and safety.

I knew I would never forgive myself for this girl's tears today.

After a few more moments, Saya stopped crying. And as she pulled away from me, she punched me hard in the gut.

* * *

I had not been expecting that. For such a small girl, she carried quite a wallop.

"OW!" I said, putting my hand to my gut as she stepped back from me.

"Jerk." She said. But this time there was no venom in her voice. And the scowl that I was beginning to think was permanently etched on her face was gone as well. Now it had been replaced by a look of relief I suppose I could call it, because it seemed like some sort of weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Or perhaps, like myself, she just wanted there to be peace in the group once again. Either way, the resentment was gone, at least for now.

"Good punch, pump- , I mean Saya-chan." I said, hoping I didn't just screw things up all over again now that we had just had begun to be civil again.

"It's OK. You can call me that, as long as it's not the mean one." She said, wiping her nose on the stained sleeve of her blouse.

"Deal." I said. "We good?" I asked, holding out my hand.

"We're good,….and." Saya said with a smile as she pushed away my hand and hugged me once more. "I'm sorry too." She said as she hugged me tighter than before.

There was more to the story of this tiny, pink-haired girl than I knew about, as I held her in my arms and wished that this was my own child that I was holding. I don't know what the story of her REAL pain was, but from here on, I was going to do my best to provide whatever help and comfort she would need to get her and her friends home safe. Or I would die trying in the process.

Maybe I'd never be a husband and father of my own children in this world, but I could be a father to these kids till I got them to their real parents. For now, that would be enough.

My new life as a mercenary medic and my escape and evasion plan to Tokyo would have to be put aside for now. Even if it meant being caught by the authorities and having to possibly endure a lifetime of incarceration, there was no way I was going to abandon these kids on their own out there with death at every corner. And to be honest, just by looking at them, there was something each and every one of them needed besides my help and my weapons. And if I could, in the time we would be together, I hoped I could help with that too.

It wasn't a sense of duty to help defenseless civilians in a time of crisis that moved my heart at that moment.

Maybe it was just my own desire for a family of my own that I would never have, or perhaps my own loneliness that made me resolve to take these kids under my wing. I'll never be truly sure. But of all the decisions I've made in my life and all the regrets that I have for making the wrong ones.

I have no regrets about this one.

* * *

A sound of sniffling came from across the room, and Saya and I both picked up our heads to see the rest of the teens looking at Shizuka, who was dabbing her eyes with a cloth towel.

"Waaaaaah! THAT IS SO SWEET!" She bawled suddenly.

I wanted to laugh, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings and start bad feelings with somebody else all over again.

Shizuka however, wasn't content to just be a bystander in all of this drama.

" Waaah! OKAY MINNA, GROUP HUG ,….COME ON! She said tears still streaming from her eyes as she threw her arms wide and scooped up the teens, shoving them forward like a bulldozer.

Takashi and Kouta were grudgingly pushed along by the Shizuka and the girls as everyone gathered in a group hug with the big American. Takashi's reluctance to get involved in the silly act was further justified as he found himself being smothered by the crushing weight of the school nurse's ample bosom cutting off his air supply as she kept hugging everyone tighter and tighter.

A muffled sound of "Shenshi, I can't breaf! Was all anyone could hear before everyone released each other and Takashi practically dropped to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

Everyone was laughing as Takashi stood up, red in the face from trying to catch his breath and from embarrassment from nearly being smothered by the school nurse's assets.

"It's not funny." He grumbled between gasps.

"Aw, don't be so upset son." The big man said grinning. "There's about a billion young men such as yourself who would have gladly LOVED to be on the receiving end of THAT particular hug, and if it's gonna be your last day on earth, it ain't exactly the worst way to go."

Takashi looked at the American not comprehending, and the puzzled look on his face only made everyone laugh even harder at his bewilderment.

"Nanda yo?" he said, coughing irritably.

There was a sudden gasp from Rei, that made everyone stop and look at her. She had been laughing like all the rest when her eyes had glanced up at the TV mounted on the wall above their heads, and the image she saw on the screen caused her to freeze in alarm.

Everyone stopped laughing and became concerned over the expression on her face. And then they all turned to look at the images on the screen. The TV had been on since they had come into the room, and there had been nothing but the regular mid-afternoon soap opera shows on.

Now there was a news reporter on the screen and incoming reports of the Contagion were now finally being televised. The volume was set so low however, that no one could hear. Saeko quickly grabbed the remote and raised the volume.

I gave a deep sigh at the newscast. Once again, our pleasant moment had been interrupted. Yet, little did I know, in the next few moments, it would be worse than I could have possibly ever imagined.

It hit me like a punch in the face. All along I had thought that the Infection had only affected the country of Japan. With the global news report on CNN, I now realized that I had been completely wrong, and the realization of just how serious the situation was stunned me so much that I had to sit down for a minute and collect my thoughts.

Russia, China, England, Japan, and my homeland. All affected, all Infected, all UNDER SIEGE by a mass of vicious Infected people who had once been friends, neighbor's,… FAMILY MEMBERS.

The whole world was experiencing an Outbreak. The stuff of fantasy and science fiction was actually happening. All the talk of nuclear war that had been the focus of peoples fear since the 50's was as nothing now. The real threat devastating the whole world all along was a biological terror, and not a nuclear one.

How stupid we had all been all along.

* * *

I was too stunned to think straight for a moment. And when I finally did, it was because of the deep guilt that I felt.

Guilt, because I was here in Japan, thousands of miles away and NO way to travel back to the States,while my family was all alone and defenseless, back home in San Antonio.

I felt my heart sink and I wanted to curse and swear and beat my head into a wall. I had left my family, my mother, my father, my younger brother and his wife alone back in Texas, just so I could go jaunting overseas to be a half-ass mercenary.

Now my REAL family needed me. And there was nothing I could do to help them. I sat anguished in that chair for I don't know how long. The kids were talking amongst themselves in Japanese, and right now, I was too upset to ask for a translation. So I ignored the words being said around me and wallowed in my own thoughts.

I dearly loved my family. But in truth, it had not ended very well between my parents and I. My brother was married and had his own life to live. But he had always been supportive of the things I've always wanted to do in life, and when I made the decision to leave Texas and become a medic with Laidlaw, he had supported me all the way, even though I could tell, he too was a little conflicted.

My mother was disappointed and of course, heart-broken that I was leaving Texas more so than anything else and wouldn't see me as much. But my father,…..

Well, my father just plain and simple disowned me.

Between the things that were going on at the Department, and the things going on in my family life, I'd had enough. And I left Texas and never looked back.

Until now that is. The last time I had talked to my brother and my mother was right before we left Nevada, bound for my first op ever in Africa. It had been a good talk, and of course, mom cried. My brother wished me well, and dad? Well, dad wouldn't even come to the phone.

Whenever any of the guys left for an op overseas, all cell and smart phones were left behind at the company for security reasons as well as safe-keeping. Out in the bush, none of them would have worked anyway, and because of that we were forced to use satellite phones anyway that were currently in the hands of J.R. and Chris wherever they were currently hiding now. On a whim, I tried the phone in front of me and the cell phone Takashi had, but there was no service on either one.

There was no way to call home.

There was no way to GET home.

There was nothing I could do to help my family. And now, I really might never see them again.

"Mom, dad, baby bro, I'm sorry guys." I said trying to keep from breaking down.

But I was not quite successful.

* * *

Author's Notes:

When I decided to write this fanfic, I had wanted to make it unique by adding some of my real-life experiences as a firefighter in it. And to a point I have, although it's nothing compared to what's coming in the chapter's ahead. I also didn't want to make it a fanfic with a lot of action, explosions and leave out the human factor in the story. While I'm not as good as some writers out there that make you absolutely fall in love and connect with the characters. I did want to try to show the more emotional side of them. None of us are immune to our emotions. And I wanted to show in this chapter that the characters have the same interests and flaws as we all do. I still believe in not taking things too seriously, so I tried to make things a little light-hearted. But, the world of HOTD is a grim one, and so people will react differently than we expect and mistakes will be made and nobody is immune. But I also showed the more positive side, and that is what you will see as the fanfic continues to progress. Eventually, as one member suggested to me, that eventually Jim and Rika will have to step in and coach the kids a bit. But I would think that anyone who really cared about someone that he or she took under their wing would want to make sure that the younger person was being corrected for all the right reasons. But just the same, when that time comes, it'll be more hilarious and less dramatic than this chapter with Saya. I just hate making kids cry don't you?

Anyway, thanks again guys for all your support.


	9. Chapter 8- The High School Of The Dead

"Whenever You Are On The Scene Of An Incident, It Is Important To Remember To Always Remain Calm At All Times And Keep Your Emotions In Check. You're No Good To Anyone, If You Are More Panicked Than The Person, Who In Their Most Desperate Time Of Need, Has Called You For Help."

FF/EMT-P J.C. Trevino

* * *

Last Alarm

Chapter Eight

"The High School Of The Dead"

* * *

"Are you alright?" A calm, soothing voiced asked from behind my left side. I had been trying to keep my emotions in check, and not break down in front of the young people in the same room. I wasn't entirely successful, and I quickly rubbed the tears from my eyes, before I turned around in my chair to see who was talking to me. I wasn't trying to conceal my anguish from the group over something as silly as trying to keep from looking foolish or weak and suffering from a bruised ego in front of everyone. There's no room for pride or arrogance in the field when people's lives are at stake. No matter what line of work you're in, or how tough you are, we are all human. And we all suffer fear, anger, grief, frustration, and pain just like everyone else in the world. But to keep ourselves going despite overwhelming odds, and catastrophic situations, and ESPECIALLY for the sake of others depending on us, we keep our emotions in check.

The reason for that is NOT macho B.S. The real reason is because people rely on all of us, man or woman, to come up with solutions to situations and disasters that are occurring and they really aren't concerned at the time if we're happy, sad, angry, or just having a bad day.

They want help and answers and they want them NOW. When I was an EMS instructor and a Field Training Officer, I had always lectured the cadets and the rookies about keeping it together, on scene.

"You can't help people who have called for your help in their most desperate time of need, if you are more panicked than they are. You're going to see stuff that will make you want to puke, cry, scream, freak out and want to quit right then and there and make you wish you had never even thought about doing this for a living." I would always tell the class, or the young scared student medic riding in the ambulance with me or the new rookie in the Dept.

"But you can't, because people NEED you. They're DEPENDING on you to make things BETTER even if the truth is you CAN'T, no matter how hard you try. And even if there's NOTHING you can do, remember, IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU. It's about what you can do FOR THEM, even if all you can do is comfort them, because it's ALREADY too late." I would say, and hope that my words would sink in to the next generation of medics and firefighter rookies.

It sounds horrible, but it's our reality, and that's what makes working as a paramedic, policeman, firefighter, and military so rough, and yet so unique.

You have to love what you do to keep doing it for the rest of your life despite the emotional and physical toll it has on you, because they sure as hell don't pay you enough for this shit, and to keep doing it, well, it really does have to come from within yourself.

People will fall over each other in a panic to save their own lives from danger which is understandable and not shameful. No one wants to die. But it takes a whole lot of something else to run TOWARDS the danger. AND keep DOING it, time and time again for YEARS if you happen to survive that long.

But it does come with a heavy price.

I was devastated with concern over my family. But I couldn't afford to fall apart with worry even though I sure felt like it at the time. But right now it wasn't about me, and right now, it was time for me to cowboy up and get these people to safety.

I turned around in my chair and looked up into the worried eyes of the young raven-haired teen with the bokken, who stared at me with a look of deep concern on her face. The others were engaged in some sort of deep conversation, and she had been the only one to notice how quiet I had suddenly become after seeing the news on the television screen.

"Something is wrong." Saeko said as she had glanced at the American, whose back was turned toward the group as they were conversing over the spread of the Contagion and the possibility of it reaching pandemic proportions.

Moved with concern, she had walked unnoticed by the rest, toward the American in hopes that whatever was troubling him, that were was some possible way she could be of any assistance.

She had stepped over to his left side so as not to startle him, and quietly asked if there was something wrong, trying not to draw attention from the others.

I looked into her face and saw the look of concern etched there, and I quickly got over myself.

No way was I going to let these kids down and have them believe I couldn't be counted on in a crisis. I had just barely re-gained their trust and it wouldn't do to see me falling apart when what was needed here, was strength and a clear and level head.

"No honey, I'm fine. I'm just tired." I said to her, lying through my teeth as I rubbed my eyes and gave a fake yawn. "What are ya'll discussing right now?'' I asked, looking at the group that seemed completely absorbed in their discussion.

"We were discussing the similarities of this disease with previous pandemics in the past and the possibility of the disease eventually subsiding or a cure being found. We were also discussing the reluctance of the officials to admit that this is no ordinary form of sickness." Saeko replied.

"And they won't either, hon.'" I said, with an edge to my voice.

"What makes you say that?" Saya asked looking over at us.

The rest of the group had noticed Saeko and I speaking quietly amongst ourselves and stopped to listen. I could see Rei translating to Takashi as I spoke. "Good" I thought. "All the kids need to hear this."

"I've seen death more times than I can count guys, and that's no exaggeration, so let me tell you now, when a person is dead, he's dead, plain and simple. There is NO disease known to man that re-animates a person's body after death. If there was, medical science would have seen it long ago. Diseases take time to evolve and mutate into something that will affect a man's immune system. All the pandemics of the past were caused by filthy conditions and poor medical care. It took time for a germ to mutate into a disease that could kill a man. The black plague ya'll were talking about was caused by flea bites and poor hygiene and primitive medical care."

"The Spanish flu itself was caused by a strain of EXISTING flu that grew into something else. Point is, these sicknesses grew from something else that had already previously existed and got out of hand. But they all took time to develop. From all these diseases of the past, we learned about better hygiene and vaccines, and how they mutate. But NEVER has there been ANY disease that has re-animated dead tissue, ESPECIALLY one that just pops up overnight. This is something else entirely."

The kids seemed to be hanging on to my every word at that point. I just hoped what I was going to say next would start to make sense to them and not sound too far off the wall, although in truth, I was hoping I was wrong. "But not bloody likely." I thought to myself, as I continued.

"This is only a theory.'' I began.

" But without the benefit of a full autopsy and a state-of-the-art forensics lab, I can't prove this with much certainty otherwise. But the truth is, it seems to me that with all the major super-powers being affected simultaneously, and with all the heads of government even now as we speak, being evacuated to parts unknown. It seems to me that what we're dealing with here is a contagion of HUMAN design, and not a unique strain of virus found in nature that has mutated. "

"This is a bio-weapon. And some bunch of idiot's have just unleashed it on the world."

The young people in the room fell silent in the room for a moment. Even Rei stopped translating for Takashi for a moment due to her shock at my statement, until he patted her on the shoulder and urged her to continue to finish the translation of my words. His face twisted into surprise for a moment. Then he asked a question which Rei translated for my benefit.

''Takashi-kun wanted me to ask you if you were thinking this is terrorism?" she said looking more frightened than before.

"No." I said looking at Takashi as I spoke.

" Americans have been pretty much yelling " terrorism" for every incident that has befallen us since September 11th." I continued. "The fact is, while a lot of cases have been, most aren't. The problem is we were not as exposed to terrorism like the nation of Israel has been for example. Those people have had to deal with it every day. The truth is, our exposure to it took a while to deal with, and our understanding of it has improved since then, and some of us have finally come to realize, it's not to blame for EVERYTHING."

"So no, this disaster is not terrorism. There's no way somebody could concoct enough of any type of bio-weapons grade virus in a bath tub or basement cellar to affect mankind on this grand a scale."

"No." I continued. "This takes SERIOUS funding and SERIOUS research and technology to make something like this. And I'm betting that this was some form of weapon that was unleashed on the world by the world leaders who already knew of its existence." I said looking out the window, pondering my own words.

"Sounds like some crazy conspiracy theory silliness." Saya said scornfully.

Oh yeah, Saya had bounced back to her little smart-ass, cranky personality pretty damn fast. I might have to start looking for a chancla after all, before our time together was through.

"Yes, it does. And again, it's only a theory. But it seems too much of a coincidence that only the major super-powers and their population are affected, while all the poorer, "Third World" countries aren't." I added.

"And also." I continued. "You've probably also noticed that all the heads of government are "flying the coop" as we say back home, and now the media is avoiding to explain the obvious fact that it's people killing people out here, and not a "Disturbance" or "Riot" like they're claiming."

"They are just trying to avoid a panic." Saya said, frowning as she pushed her glasses back from sliding off her nose.

"True." But here's one more thing that leads me to believe this isn't a natural occurence, pumpkin." I said.

"What's that?" she asked, puzzled.

"Shizuka-san." I said looking at the school nurse. "You're the school nurse, correct?"

"Hai!" she said perking up. "Why do you ask?"

"Just follow along with what I'm saying and maybe you can help me help the kids to understand." I said as I looked on my captive audience.

''Any of you kids take anatomy and physiology here?" I asked.

"Yes, we all do." The girls said right away. The boys however, seemed to take particular interest at staring at the floor.

"Start hitting the books, and put away the video game controller and the porn guys." I said shaking my head at them. "You're making us men look bad, and girls don't like dumb guys, unless you're rich, and neither one of you looks like you are." I said, in mock scorn.

The two teens looked at me in a mixture of horror and embarrassment, as the girls laughed at their vehement attempts at denial of their daily routine of video games and internet porn.

"Whatever." I said rolling my eyes. "Anyway, basically, the human body is normally looked at as nothing but bone and tissue in the eyes of most people." I explained, sliding into my old EMS instructor mode once again.

"However, the human body really is just one big chemical factory that processes all sorts of vitamins and minerals and chemicals in our body every day. Different chemicals are manufactured and processed in our body from outside sources such as food and water to help maintain homeostasis. "

"Balance." I said looking toward the two boys who were trying hard not to look completely lost in front of the girls, and failing miserably.

"Some chemicals manufactured like adrenalin, affect the way we react to danger. When we're scared or angry, adrenalin is released to make us get ready to "fight" or prepare for taking "flight." Bile, when secreted helps in digestion. Insulin is produced to help in the breakdown of ketones or sugars. However, if there is a deficiency in any of these, the body quits working properly, and the organs start to fail. And eventually, the entire body breaks down."

" The heart itself can be affected by certain deficiencies as well, such as sodium, potassium, and even calcium which as you all know, gives strength to our bones. Too much or too little calcium though, can also cause cardiac irritability and fatal arrhythmias if not corrected."

"Irregular heartbeat." I said, as Takashi scratched his head, completely lost, as the girls continued to giggle at both of the boy's confusion. I don't know how Rei could keep translating for Takashi, as much as she was giggling. Guess I was gonna have to wrap this up pretty quick.

"Anyway," I continued. "The point is, different things affect the body differently. And when you introduce certain powerful medications into the body like the ones I carry in my pack, they react swiftly with the body chemistry to hopefully gain a positive reaction to a certain sickness or disease, and hopefully, reverse the underlying problem."

"However, as you know, certain drugs AREN'T beneficial and can kill or alter a person's physical or mental state in a completely NEGATIVE way.

Poisons, such as cyanide, kill by asphyxiation by removing oxygen from the body. Mind altering drugs such as LSD can alter a person's perception so that he sees all sorts of "visions".

"PCP does the same thing, however what makes it even more dangerous is the user can go completely out of control and experience superhuman strength, because the receptors that tell him to stop and feel pain are blocked. "

" I'll give you an example." I said, trying to strike the point home and finish my lecture.

"A friend of mine who was a Los Angeles Paramedic told me about a call he made where a man, high on PCP, snapped a pair of handcuffs in two and was tossing 55 gallon drums full of oil, six feet in the air. It took several police to subdue him." I said, looking at their shocked faces.

"Years ago, a famous writer I knew about named Clive Cussler, wrote a book, that had a scene in it where a bunch of tourists were attacked by local tribesman who had been poisoned with leaking hazardous chemicals and became savage from the effects of increased levels of pollutants in their bloodstream that affected their brain tissue. They killed and ate the flesh of the tourists, just like our friends out there. That too is actually medically possible"

The kids seemed to be in total shock at my last couple of statements, and started talking excitedly amongst themselves.

Rei held up her hand as if she were still in class and said. "That explains why Wakisaka-sensei was so strong when Hisashi,…."

For some reason Rei stopped mid-sentence and then seemed very reluctant to finish her story and hung her head, as Takashi placed his arm around her, holding her close.

Whatever it was, I hoped I could talk to them later about it and help them work it out.

"So, your saying everyone's just drugged and not really dead?" Saya asked her voice indicating she wasn't really convinced.

"Not drugged. Just "altered," is what I'm getting at." I replied.

""But I stabbed Wakisaka-sensei in the heart and he still kept moving and he was still very STRONG too." Rei said.

"He's dead, as far as the man you knew, sweetie." I said nodding my head. "At the airport, I watched a guard shoot a man point-blank in the heart and he kept on coming."

"What drug can possibly do that?" Shizuka asked, her mind heavily pondering the theories I was presenting.

"None, that I'm aware of." I admitted. "But keep in mind, the heart is only a pump. Its job is to pump deoxygenated blood from the body to the lungs and then pump oxygenated blood from the lungs back to the body. It can be kept pumping artificially, by CPR or mechanical means. And if a heart is removed from the body, in theory, blood can still be pumped and oxygenated artificially and sustain the brain.

"But once the brain is dead, that's it. NOTHING WORKS. But, if the brain is still alive, and firing electric signals to the rest of the body, well, it MIGHT be possible. "

"Seriously?" Saya said, completely back in brat mode again.

"Well, think about it, there ARE single-celled organisms that swim, hunt, eat, and poop and they have neither heart nor brain. But they're still ALIVE."

"So your saying that maybe someone made a drug that makes killer zombies." Saya asked in a very condescending tone.

I was REALLY wanting that chancla pretty bad right about now. How quickly she forgot our little spat just a short while ago.

"What I'm saying pumpkin, is, that this ISN'T a natural occurrence of some mutated virus existing in nature. "

"SOMEONE of a higher pay grade than mine and a medical education way past Stephen Hawking's ability, has made it possible to "alter" human physiology and make one hell of a bio-weapon that no one ever thought possible." I said flatly.

"It takes a LOT more money and a LOT more resources than any one person or private company can muster to finance a project like this." I continued.

" And then there's also motive." I said as I stared out the window.

"Motive?" Saeko asked, puzzled.

It had just occurred to me as I'd been talking. And at least to me, it made the most sense.

"Motive." I said looking at Saeko, nodding my head.

"Why use nuclear weapons which would destroy everything on the earth several times over and leave nothing, when you can use a bio-weapon and kill all your enemies so the winning survivors can enjoy all the resources left behind later?"

I was a bit startled to see everyone suddenly staring at me as if I'd gone crazy.

"Uhm, what's the matter guys? I said, getting nervous.

"How do you know all this?" Shizuka asked seemingly alarmed at my statements.

I let out a breath and chuckled.

"It's not so amazing guys." I said, trying to explain. "In America, the whole zombie thing is much more popular than in the rest of the world. We have all sorts of movies and TV shows about it. The "Walking Dead" is a real popular show back home and it talked a bit about the theory I just mentioned.

I didn't come out with that theory all by myself. And I have had some fun myself wondering if such a thing was really possible."

"Wow." Saya thought to herself, impressed. " That was still pretty impressive talk for such a big ape."

"Anyway," I said dismissing the whole thing with a wave of my hand. "That's just some crazy theory that I have about the whole thing, and right now, it's a moot point. Our priority is getting all of you to safety." I said.

"Getting all of US, to safety don't you mean? Saeko asked, studying the man's face.

"Well of course, sweetie." The man said looking directly at her face with a weak smile. "All of us."

Saeko, though, wasn't convinced that the man was being completely honest. Her instincts were telling her that this man was holding something back, and it put her on edge for some reason. She didn't have long to ponder her thoughts as the man continued to speak.

"Guys, gather around." He said gesturing them to approach him by waving his hands towards them.

"Rei." The man continued. "Make sure Takashi understands each word of this that I'm about to tell you. If I'm going too fast, let me know. Understand?"

"Hai!" Rei answered.

As they all gathered in front of him, he continued to speak, and as Saeko watched, it seemed that the man was not just speaking to them as someone trying to help a bunch of strangers. There seemed to be a lot of concern in his voice as he spoke.

"Kids." The man began. "I'm not going to sugar coat it. When we walk through that door, we can expect nothing but ugliness, danger and death waiting for us outside of this room. It's not going to be easy, but we can make it. I've seen what you can do to protect yourselves, and I'll be honest with you. I'm VERY impressed with all of you. You've managed to survive while others didn't and that says a lot about each and every one of you. I feel that all of you can handle it and I'm hoping that we can get all of you to your homes and family without anyone getting hurt, but again. It's not going to be easy. In fact, it's going to be downright dangerous. But if we stick together, we'll make it. Agreed?"

There was a resounding "Hai" from all of them, and I hoped that I would be able to keep my word, because it was a lot worse outside than what these kids were fully aware of.

Saeko turned towards everyone and started talking to the them in Japanese for a moment. Then suddenly, everybody started grabbing their weapons as they all acted as if they were going to charge the door.

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA!" I said standing in front of them holding my hands up to keep them from making a bee-line to wherever it was they were thinking of heading off to.

"Where's everyone going?!" I said startled by everyone's sudden reaction.

"Uhm, nowhere." Saeko said looking slightly embarrassed." I was just telling everyone we should team up and work together for our survival."

I smiled at her and let out a sigh of relief. For a moment there, I had thought everyone was going to charge the door and run off without me.

Geez, and my younger brother said I used to be overdramatic.

"Good idea, guys." I said, trying not to laugh and further embarrass them. "But we need to sit down and make a plan first before we move out, otherwise, we're not going to get very far."

"First things first." I said. "Weapons."

Saeko presented her bokken. "I have this." She said holding it up.

I asked to see her bokken, and as I held it in my hand, I hefted its weight.

The bokken that the Japanese use in their sword arts are NOT the cheap wooden swords made in China that you find in any martial arts store in America. These things are made to simulate the weight and feel of a real katana, so they are a lot thicker and heavier. This is especially important for those practicing the art of iaido, where the sword is drawn lightning fast and the enemy is cut, all in one motion. Of course, even by themselves, these bokken could easily kill a man if the wielder was skilled enough. Japan's greatest samurai hero, the ronin Miyamoto Musashi, according to legend, killed his greatest rival, Sasaki Kojirō with a bokken supposedly cut from a boat oar.

"You are a Kendo student?" I asked Saeko.

"Hai." She said bowing slightly.

"Not just that, but she's also the Captain of the team, and she and her team also won the annual Championship!" Rei exclaimed proudly.

"Ma, Miyamoto-san, Please!" Saeko said, her hand on her cheek, blushing slightly.

And a very modest girl too. I observed.

"Impressive, Kancho." I said, using the Japanese word for "Captain" as I handed her bokken back to her. I was really starting to like this quiet, shy girl who didn't try to act all self-important, but was extremely modest and sincerely concerned for others, as she had displayed out there in the hallway by comforting Saya, and just a few minutes ago, tried to help me when I was worrying about my family.

I then looked over at Rei and saw the mop handle in her hand with a very sharp metal end sticking up from where the actual mop head had been.

"You using that as a spear, Rei-chan?" I asked.

"Hai! It's what I'm used to. I'm in the sojutsu club." She said proudly.

"So you know how to handle a yari and a naginata, I presume? I asked.

"Mmm!" She said with a smile.

"Very good." I said nodding. "Maybe if we can, we'll try to get ya'll some real steel weapons. Although I really hope you don't have to use them."

"You are familiar with Budo?" Saeko asked intrigued.

"I have had no formal training." I replied. "But I am somewhat vaguely familiar with the Japanese fighting arts." I said with a smile.

"Takashi!" Nanda kore wa?" I asked looking at his bat.

Takashi handed his bat to me, as I looked it over. Aluminum, but still nice and heavy. Excellent.

"YOSH!" I said in my extremely horrible impersonation of Toshiro Mifune, as I handed it back to him as if it were a katana, while he and everyone else laughed.

"Kouta. My number one fan. Waddaya got?" I asked, staring at the strange contraption in his hands.

"It's just a nail gun." He said sheepishly. "I made it to shoot like a rifle when Takagi-san and I were trapped in one of the classrooms."

I have used nail guns in the past when I used to work (For FREE) with my dad on my days off from school as a teenager on his jobsites. I'd been shot twice by accident with one from other workers before nail guns were finally manufactured with all sorts of safety features so they couldn't fire without pressing down on a hard surface. The one that I got shot with, fired a smaller size nail. It wasn't pleasant, but it didn't penetrate the skin.

I had to admit, Kouta's invention didn't look like much either, but the two corpses I saw in the foyer with nails sticking out of their skulls said otherwise, to its effectiveness.

"What's the range? I asked, looking at him as I held it to my shoulder.

"Two meters,….max." He replied, slightly embarrassed.

"TWO METERS?!" I said aghast. "This boy was BRAVE. I wouldn't want any of those Infected things within TEN meters from me before I opened fire. At least, on purpose. Talk about fighting up close and personal.

"Son, that is some good thinking on your part, putting that together under those conditions. And you are one very brave young man. I mean that." I said looking into his eyes.

"If things work out, I'll get you a real rifle though." I said, and then immediately regretted saying it when the kid started asking me what kind of rifle I'd get him, where would I get it from, and how soon,….. etc., etc., etc.,

Me and my big mouth.

"Shizuka-san?" I said looking at the blond Japanese woman. I had seen plenty of women who have dyed their hair different colors before back home, especially at anime conventions, so her blond hair came as no surprise when I first saw her. Not like when I first saw Saya's hair color, although I was beginning to suspect that Saya's choice was not so much a fashion statement, but more of a rebellious gesture meant to shock her parents.

Anyway, I'm getting off track here.

"So what weapons do you have in that medical bag next to you?" I asked, pointing at the white bag with the red cross on it, lying on the desk behind her.

"Eh, weapons?" She said looking somewhat confused. "I don't know, let me see." She said lifting the bag and rummaging through it, and after a few long moments, pulled out a pair of blunt-nose bandage scissors.

'How about these?" She asked me with a serious expression on her face.

"Tell you what." I said trying to be nice. " How about you just stay close to us and don't wander off, Ok?

"Hai!" She said cheerfully as Saya rolled her eyes.

She sure was a good-natured person, I give her that. I just hoped that underneath her bubbly personality, there was someone we could all turn to in a crisis. Because if something happened to me, she was the only adult left to get the kids to safety, and so far, I hadn't seen anything to boost my confidence in any of her survival skills as of yet.

"Okay guys." I said, standing up to look at them . "This is important, so pay close attention. If anything happens to me, and you can get to my body, if it's safe to do so, I want you to,….

"What do you mean you're body?" Asked Saeko in horror, interrupting me. Everyone else seemed to be stunned by my words as well.

"I mean exactly that hon'." I said, the expression on my face becoming deadly serious. "If something happens to me, you guys are on your own, and that means you'll need all the help you can get. So listen up."

"I'm carrying quite a bit of equipment as well as weapons and ammo. Some stuff is in that pack and on my vest and on my person. If something happens, you need to take it. ALL of it, understand?"

Everyone nodded their heads reluctantly as I continued my demonstration.

I picked up my carbine and held it in front of them.

"American made Mk 18 Mod 0 carbine." I said holding up my carbine.

"Shoot's 5.56/.223 ammo in these 30 round magazines." I said pulling out the mag. "This magazine is plastic as compared to the normal military magazines and has a clear window on the side so you can see how many rounds you have left. Also, this one has a clip that attaches another magazine to it, so as soon as one mag is empty, you press this button on the right side of the rifle and it releases the magazine, and you pull it out and slap the next one in, and hit this lever. It'll push the next round in. This is the safety lever right here. Flip it up one notch, and you can shoot one round at a time, flip it again and you can shoot three rounds at a time, or all the way and you can shoot it full auto."

"DON'T use that feature unless you have to. It just wastes ammo and makes a rifle this small that much more difficult to control."

"If it jams, pull this here." I said, pulling back the charging handle. "If that doesn't clear it, there are other things to do, but don't waste time screwing with it. RUN, and worry about it later."

" When you need more ammo, the vest has ten magazines in these pockets with thirty rounds each and this one," I said, pulling out a really big magazine. "This one holds sixty rounds. I also have six more 30 round magazines in that ammo pouch on top of my pack."

"I used up six mags getting here from the airport, so I used up all my extra ammo to reload my empty magazines. So what's in the magazines, is all the rifle ammo I have left."

"That's 600 rounds for the rifle!" Said Kouta excitedly. "That's a LOT!"

"Not really." I replied in a serious tone. "A good firefight will burn this up quick." And there's no telling when you can get more, so if something happens to me, and you end up using this thing, DON'T waste ammo!"

"Anyway, touch this button on this sight right here, I said pointing to the Eotech sight. And you just aim the red holo image on anything within 25 meters and squeeze the trigger. Use head shots only. Center of mass doesn't work. There's also extra batteries for it in the pack."

"What about all these other things on it?" Rei asked, pointing to the top of the carbine.

"Laser unit and combat light." I explained. "Press this switch right here on this grip for the light, and this one on the other side of the RAIL for the laser. DON"T worry about them unless you need them."

I passed the empty rifle to the kids to get familiar with it, and pulled out my pistol.

" Sig P226 Navy model." I said pulling out the magazine and racking the slide, ejecting the round from the chamber. " 9mm, and its double action, which means all you have to do is squeeze the trigger. But be careful, this is a combat pistol, so there's NO safety. Keep your finger OFF the trigger until you need to shoot. The first trigger pull is kinda hard, the next ones shoot a lot easier after that. The magazines hold eighteen rounds each and there are six of them.

One in the pistol, one in the holster, and four more in this pouch on my belt. There's two extra boxes of ammo in the pack." I then passed the pistol to them as well.

"By the way," I continued. "That is a rare NSW Commemorative pistol. There were only 2000 made. If something happens to me and you guys get to safety, I want this shipped to my younger brother back home in San Antonio if at all possible. OK?"

Everyone looked puzzled at my words except Kouta, which just about figured. If anyone could understand the value of the history of my pistol, it would be him.

Ya'll should have seen his eyes when he got it in his hands.

"OK. Now for the most important thing, the pack." I said moving over to the pack lying on top of the desk.

"If you can't get to my vest and weapons on my body, then try as hard as you can to at least get to the pack. In here, are food, water, ammo, and some survival equipment that you can use. Also, this small pack that's hanging on the side here is a medical pack."

"Shizuka, you know how to administer I.V's? I asked.

"Yes, I do. " She answered, suddenly interested.

"Well, they're in there, complete with drip sets and I.V. catheters, as well as some I.V. Meds, lung decompression kits, and bandaging stuff. And in this pouch back here." I said as I pulled the cover off the stock of my sniper rifle and pulled it out for everyone to see.

"M24 sniper rifle in .308 caliber, bolt-action with a magazine extender at the bottom so you can load eight rounds. Be careful, it's HEAVY. The scope is set for 100 meters. Anything beyond that is going to be trial and error and you don't need to be worrying about long distance shots anyway. If they're more than 100 meters away, you need to think about running away and not acting like this is "Call Of Duty", cause it's not. I also have several knives, folding and fixed that I'm wearing on me, like the one on my leg, and also in my pack."

"Now, this pack was set up by a friend of mine named Andy who did a lot of long range recon in his military career, so it'll have everything you need for three days. You guys will just have to share, but it'll be better to have this pack that not at all."

"What did your friend do in the military?" Kouta asked, eyeballing the sniper rifle.

" Andy was 22nd Regiment SAS, and a former Royal Marine" I said to Kouta, knowing he'd love that. "He was also Pathfinder qualified. So my pack is the same as his, and when ya'll go through it, you'll find a lot of useful things to help you survive."

"Hopefully, we will not have to use them." Saeko said, looking at me with a strange look on her face. "I would prefer you be the only one who would need anything from the equipment you carry, and none of us need use it."

I was a little confused by the strange look on her face. But I just shrugged and laughed it off.

"Hopefully, none of us will need to rely on any of my gear, Saeko-chan." I said looking at Saeko. "But if we do, you know what I have and what to do with it, if the worst happens. And that's why I'm doing this."

"OK, Kouta. Give 'em back." I said with a chuckle. The kid had somehow gotten all the weapons back from the other teens and was cradling them all like newborn children. And he acted like they were to, the way he was reluctant to give them up when I took them all away from him.

"Ok, Next thing, provisions." I said checking my mental list off. "Food, water, anything here of value?"

"Just bottled water." Rei answered. "But nothing else."

"No vending machines?" I asked. "How far is your school cafeteria?"

"They are all on the other side of the building and quite inaccessible I'm afraid." Saeko answered.

"Well, I have a dozen protein bars in here, and we can scrounge up food somewhere." I said. "However, we need to stick to packaged food and bottled water only. Right now this Contagion seems to be transmitted only by blood and body fluid contact from the bites of the Infected, and not by airborne means or in food or water. But let's not take any chances."

"Rei-chan, put those bottles of water in my pack, as many as you can fit, and some into Shizuka's pack as well, please?"

"Hai." The young girl answered as she turned towards the small freezer in the small kitchenette.

"As soon as we can, we need to stock up on provisions. There's no telling what we'll find as far as a safe route or a safe shelter if there still is such a place out there, so we need to assume that we need to fend for ourselves." I said.

"Next, we need an exit strategy and the locations of each and every one of your homes so we can try to make contact with your parents who I'm sure by now, will try looking for you there, before heading this way to look for you since I'm assuming your classes would be over by now, correct?"

"Yes." Shizuka said piping in. School would have been dismissed an hour ago."

"Good. We need a map of the city for everyone. And,…" I said looking around the room.

"THAT." I said, finding the small piece of paper encased in laminate on the wall near the doors.

In every public and government building is a small map showing the layout of the building and where all available emergency exit routes are. Every year, Fire crews visit all the schools, libraries and other buildings to make sure they have one. This was our way out for an entirely different reason now than a normal fire drill however.

I grabbed the plastic map off the wall and took it to the desk, where Rei was already stuffing water bottles into the two packs. Kouta had brought a map of the city he had found, and laid it out on the desk next to where she was.

''Ok everyone gather around." I said waving them all over. It was getting late and I wanted to move out of this room and to a safer, well-stocked and more defensible place of shelter once we made contact with their families.

When they were all gathered around, I pointed to the map and held out a felt marker to them.

"I need each of you to draw a circle around your homes and your names in Japanese and English and a number next to it from the closest to the furthest away from this school. And I also need a big "X" showing where this school is as a reference point." I said handing the pen to Shizuka. One by one, each of them drew a circle around their homes. It didn't look good. These kids were scattered all over this one easterly section of the city. It wasn't going to be easy to get to their homes with Infected and panicked crowds of people to say the least.

"Okay, here's the plan." I said looking at them. "When we blow this place, we're going to head to your homes, one at a time. If we can't find your parents, we'll leave a note on where to find us, and move on to the next house." I watched them as they all nodded their heads.

"If for some reason something happens and we have to separate, I want each of you to keep as safe as possible and head for the next house on the map whether you live there or not. I'll look for you there, and wait a couple hours. If you don't show up, I'll leave a note and look for you at the next house, understand?" They all looked at me and nodded their heads. Takashi raised his hand.

"Yes?" I said waiting for Rei to translate his words.

"Takashi's mom is a teacher at a junior high school, and she stays there late sometimes."

"Where?" I asked, as Takashi grabbed the pen and made a square around it at the furthest point away from all the circles on the map.

"Okay." I said rubbing my chin and happy not to have had any stubble there anymore. "That's our rally point."

"Rally point?" Takashi asked in English.

"Yeah." I said looking at him. "I know you want to get to your mom right away, and believe me, I know how you feel. But since her school is the furthest point away, that'll be the last place we look, and it'll be the place we all meet if we get separated for any reason and you can't go to your homes where I can find you. If I don't find you at the rally point at a given time, I'll head back to your houses and search for you." I said, as Rei translated for me.

Takashi looked at the floor and nodded his head. I put my hand on his shoulder, and looked at him in the eye as he looked at my face.

"Shinpai shinaide de, Takashi-kun." I said in Japanese hoping I was saying, "Don't worry, Takashi."

"If I know how mom's think, she's probably waiting at home for you to come walking in the door, and if not, then she's probably locked up as we are in the school, and we can rescue her, Ok?"

After Rei finished speaking, the boy nodded his head, but I knew he still wasn't happy about it. And I didn't blame him one bit, thinking about my own family back home in Texas..

I wasn't so confident of my own words, but I didn't want him so sick with worry that he got himself killed in the process of leaving here and trying to get to her either.

"Okay, then. Everybody understand the plan?" I asked as all heads nodded once again.

"Good. Now I need TWO copies for each and every one of us. Keep one in your pocket, and keep an extra just in case."

Shizuka-san?" I asked. "If the printer is still working, could you make enough copies for everyone to have at least two?"

"I'll check, but yes, I will." She said, taking my copy of the map from me.

"Now, guys." I said turning towards the teens."Show me the fastest and easiest and way out of this building." I said looking at the evacuation map.

It took a little while before we were ready to go. One of the first things to go wrong had been when the subject of obtaining transport off the school grounds came to an almost near disaster, because Shizuka, who had claimed she had a vehicle for us to use, had failed to realize her little Toyota compact wasn't going to be enough to be able to carry us all.

Saeko saved the day however, by recommending we use the small mini-bus, that the school's clubs used, to take students to their out of town school events. If we hadn't known that, we would have had to start stealing multiple vehicles from the lot. Which would have been a problem, since we couldn't find any more car keys, and we were NOT about to search every Infected teacher looking for one we could use.

(That saved our bacon. Because contrary to popular belief, not all latinos can hot-wire a car.)

I also had to explain to these kids that we couldn't just charge out the door either like they had earlier. And I had to further explain that we needed to form a plan of egress, stick to it, and defend ourselves in an organized fashion, and not just whomp the head of everything that drooled.

THAT part had not quite been so easy.

Finally, after a few instructions on silent movement, hand signals, and what each of us were to do as we made our escape, I figured it was time to get moving.

"Ok everyone, gear up!" I said as I donned my combat vest and zipped it up.

Immediately everyone grabbed their weapons , since they had no other belongings to carry, and Shizuka grabbed her bag and put it on her shoulders. I donned my heavy pack and cinched the straps. Once I buckled in the waist belt, I did a quick little jog-in-place and then cinched the waist belt tighter.

"Why did you do that?" Kouta asked " Are we going to have to run?" He asked, looking a bit green.

"I hope not." I said, and I meant it too. During the Gulf War, an eight man team of British SAS went on a "SCUD hunt" and were compromised, having to run for their lives before most were captured, one was KIA, and a couple died from exposure. Their story was made famous in the book and movie "Bravo Two Zero."

The packs those men carried on that operation were British-issue Bergens, that when fully packed, weighed in excess of 200 pounds EACH. Mine wasn't that heavy, but running long distance with it wasn't something I really wanted to do either.

" My friend Andy showed me a little trick to prepare myself for silent movement in the field." I explained. "You put on your gear, and jog in place a bit. If anything shakes, rattles, and clanks, you correct it and try again, keep doing that till you hear nothing at all."

I did it again and hearing nothing, I grabbed my carbine and double-checked it. I watched as Kouta jogged in place, although not as vigorously as I did. There were a few clinks heard coming from the change in his pocket.

"Grab some tape and tape them together, and then try again." I suggested, as each of the teens did the same thing, with Takashi being the only one else that needed to tape some coins in his pocket as well.

When Shizuka tried to jog in place though, the same as everyone, I had to stop her. No need to give the boys a cheap thrill at seeing that, I figured, although I'm pretty sure they were pissed off at me for stopping her.

"Sensei!" I said, as she stopped in mid-step. "Don't." Which made all the girls laugh at seeing her bewildered face.

"Eh, doshite?" She asked not comprehending.

"Just trust me, hon." I said chuckling to myself. "Turn around and let me see what you got."

I had to remove a few glass bottles of antiseptic, which I didn't know why she had in the first place, since we wouldn't be performing field surgery in the second place. After tossing a few more items and making sure she didn't have anything rattling around, I left her pouting about the things I threw out, and the boys and I quickly removed the boxes of printing paper, and the table.

Enough preparations had been made.

We had been locked up in this room long enough as it was.

It would be dark in a few hours and we could no longer afford to stay here.

It was now time to leave.

* * *

Author's Notes:

After I posted the last chapter, I was very encouraged by the interest that everyone has shown in my fanfic. I was especially pleased to see the large amount of interest here in the U.S., but especially by the interest of all those overseas, including Japan.

I really would like to keep all of you enjoying this story. However, there does come a point where there is no action and fighting, and it comes down to people talking. I hope that this chapter doesn't bore you. But again, I try to imagine what it would be like if I were in a similar situation, and what I would say or do in such a case, and I do try not to ramble too much. In the next chapter, it'll be a bit more exciting, so bear with me. And thanks again for all your support. It really helps me to keep on writing.

Thanks again! Jim


	10. Chapter 9-Escape From The High School

Last Alarm

Chapter 9

"Escape From The High School Of The Dead

* * *

It was time to leave.

But first, there was something I needed to do. And I had to do it quickly.

"Takashi, Saeko-chan, chotto." I said to the two teens, motioning them to follow me to the small kitchenette area towards the back of the faculty room.

The other teens immediately perked their heads up, and looked over at us walking away, and I imagined that they were curious as to why I singled out these two. But there was no time to explain and I merely motioned for them to stay put. Although I could see Saya trying to discretely move closer to where we were headed.

"Stay over there with Kouta, pumpkin. I need a moment with these two." I said shooing her off. I also glanced over at Rei who seemed to be a little upset that I had asked Saeko to come with Takashi instead of her. But from the face she was making as she stared at us, it led me to believe it was more a case of teen rivalry with Saeko over the handsome young boy in the room and not my choice of interpreter. Well, their love triangle would have to wait. THIS was serious.

As we all entered the kitchenette, out of earshot of the others, I turned toward the two teens and looked at their puzzled faces.

"Saeko, please interpret my words to Takashi for me please? This is very important." I said looking at her face.

"Of course." She replied. "Is there something wrong?" She asked, a concerned look on her face.

"Not at all." I said with a sigh. "But, what I have to ask of both of you will be extremely difficult, and as much as I hate to burden you with this, the two of you are the only ones I have the utmost confidence in, to be able to say something like this to."

"Nanda?" Takashi asked, concerned by the serious tone of my voice. Saeko said a few words in Japanese, and he nodded his head.

"I've been watching all of you since we locked ourselves away in to this room. And of everyone here, the two of you have both proven to me to be the most trustworthy, mature, and cool under stress, than the rest of the others. So what I'm asking of you both, is that if anything happens to me, I need you to take it upon yourselves to step up if the worst should happen and take over. And get everyone to safety. Understand?"

Saeko had been translating my words to Takashi, and stopped for a moment before finishing.

They both looked at me as if I were nuts, and I could tell from looking at them, that they were about to say something along the lines that" everything would be alright," and so forth. But I stopped them both before they could utter a word.

* * *

"Guys." I said, holding my hand up to shush them. " I'm not being fatalistic here. I just want to make it clear, that YOU guys are in charge when I'm not around, because YOUR'E the only ones I can trust to get everyone home. Because I KNOW you can do the job, that's all. Understand?"

I could see that they weren't too keen on the idea. And that was good. Since I knew their ego wouldn't be the determining factor on taking on this huge responsibility, BECAUSE they DIDN"T want the job in the first place.

"This is REALLY life or death you two." I continued, putting my hands on their shoulders. "And I mean this. I have absolute faith in both of you to get everyone home safely if I can't. I just wanted to let you know that. Ok?''

In truth, I really WASN'T sure one hundred percent that they were up to the task. But of everyone in this room, these two showed the most promise. And I needed them to grow up, and step up, if I was no longer in the picture.

The two teens looked at me though, as if I was giving them my final farewell.

* * *

"Quit looking at me as if I'm dying guys." I said grinning. "I'm just letting you know how much I trust you, and how confident I am in your ability to lead this group just in case something happens to me, that's all."

They both smiled somewhat weakly, and I hugged them both just to try to help calm their fears a bit.

"Oh, and if Saya gives you any lip about ya'll being put in charge." I said as I stepped back from them. "You have my permission to smack her."

The two teens laughed at that, and I then motioned for them to join the rest of the group.

"What's so funny?" Saya asked suspiciously, eyeballing the three of us.

"Nothin' , we were just talking about you." I said with a grin. If she was going to insist on being a brat, then two could play that game. I just had to be careful and not go too far and cause a repeat of the mess I had made earlier.

"What ABOUT me?" She said, hands on her hips.

"Nothing special." I quipped. "Just that your glasses make you look real cute, especially when you're standing next to Kouta."

The embarrassed look visible on both Saya's and Kouta's faces, was priceless. And while I was not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, I saw no harm in a little friendly ribbing.

Besides, when she wasn't busy screaming at the poor guy, I could see that Kouta was more than happy to be around her, so I thought I'd give them a little push in the right direction.

Ah, amour.

* * *

The time for jokes was over now though as it was getting late, and it was most definitely time to get moving.

I walked up to the door past the rest of the group and then motioned for them to move up, as I reached the door and placed my hand on the panic bar.

" Ok, guys." I began.

" From this point on, NO unnecessary noise. And no wandering off. WAIT, for my commands BEFORE you strike. If you need to say something,….WHISPER. Otherwise, remember my hand signals that I taught you once we get moving. And try not to get separated. OK?" I asked looking at their faces.

Everyone nodded in acknowledgement, and raised their weapons. I then turned back towards the door, and letting out a breath, slowly pushed it open. Unlike dynamic room entry, were the rescue team breaches the door with explosives or a shotgun and tosses in a flash bang grenade and double-taps all the tangos inside while they stand shocked, blinded, and confused by all the explosions. This entry into the foyer was requiring stealth. And since I didn't have a well-trained team of operators behind me, I needed to make our escape out of the school as quietly as possible and not draw any attention.

If that was even remotely possible with a bunch of teenage civilians, and one school nurse following closely behind me. And knocking open doors was definitely not an option, and firing my carbine would also need to be avoided as well, unless there was no other choice.

Unlike a tactical team, where all the operators normally line up in a "stack" and enter into a room with everyone fanning out and covering each section of a room. In this case, there was no "stack". It was just little old me. And I didn't want the kids too close, just in case there was a bunch of these things waiting out there in the foyer for us. So as slowly and as quietly as I could, I opened the door and peered outside.

Yup, there were four of them, standing right outside towards the doors leading out to the walkway. I immediately checked the area to my right, and then quickly scanned the rest of the foyer to make sure there were no more Infected within my line of sight. I then turned around and looked back at the group and then nodded to Rei to hold the door open for me. And as she held the door open, I stepped outside, and turned immediately to my left with my carbine to my shoulder and checked the hallway to our left.

"Clear." I said, in a low voice and turned around aiming my carbine at the slowly shuffling figures in the foyer, and moved slowly towards the kids gathering at the door.

"Kouta, you're up." I whispered. "Take out the first two. The rest of you, take out the rest, and BE CAREFUL." I said as I moved forward and to the side of the Infected teens, trying to get in a better position to cover the kids with my carbine.

The strategy was simple enough. Whenever we came across any Infected, Kouta would take out a few of them with his quieter nail gun/rifle, and then leave a couple stragglers that could more easily be taken out hand to hand, by the other teens without putting everyone in too much danger unnecessarily. I would have loved to have him shoot all of them, but he didn't have that much ammo. And there was no telling how many of these things we'd have to go through before we got to safety. So knocking a few down and leaving a couple for hand-to-hand combat was our only option.

Meanwhile, I would cover them all with my carbine, and would use it too, if it looked like the kids were going to be in trouble. Even though the normal report from a .223 isn't extremely loud outdoors in the battlefield, in these long hallways, it sounded like a cannon. And I didn't want to use it unless I REALLY needed to.

The reason for that was because otherwise, we might find ourselves facing a HORDE of these things coming out of the woodwork, attracted by the noise of the gunfire. We'd been lucky before, but I really didn't want to push it. I really hated to put these kids at risk at all, but I couldn't do everything, and so there really wasn't much of a choice in the matter.

There were two small "pops" from Kouta's nail gun and two of the Infected teens fell to the ground, a nail imbedded in their skulls.

"Not bad." I thought to myself. "That thing works better than I thought."

Now came the part I really hated. Letting the kids go toe-to-toe with these things with their improvised hand-held weapons, while I stood there with perfectly fine firearms watching them.

I cursed myself for not having a suppressor for my rifle or my pistol. But there was no time to beat myself up over it, as the kids moved forward and made their attack as I pressed the switch on my laser unit and covered them with my carbine. Takashi moved swiftly, and quietly, as the Infected boy in his path fell to the ground in a heap with one swing of his bat. "Well done, kid." I thought.

The next one,…not so much.

* * *

I guess there was something either lost in translation, or the kid's thirst for battle was at an all-time high, or the young man was just anxious to get to his mother and wanted to destroy any obstacle in his path.

I'm not really sure, because suddenly noise discipline and teamwork went out the window, as he gave a loud battle cry and rushed past Saeko who was getting ready to strike, and almost completely knocked the head off the next Infected student, splashing blood, bone and brain matter all across the foyer wall.

I reached up and grabbed him by his arm, trying to keep him from turning the bat on me, as he flinched upon feeling my hand on him, and hissed at him angrily when he looked at me startled, in the face.

"SON! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" I hissed as he looked at me. "CALM THE HELL DOWN, DAMMIT, YOUR'E GOING TO GET US ALL KILLED!" I said as I let go of his arm.

Takashi looked at me with a rather embarrassed expression on his face and nodded his head, as Saeko translated my angry words. He bowed and apologized. And as I looked in his face, just like before with Saya a while ago, I felt ashamed.

I was not dealing with a cadet or rookie flying off the handle here being reckless and about to get everyone killed because he'd lost it on a bad call. These were teenagers whose lives were turned upside down and now, instead of focusing on school, dating and parties. They were now forced to kill people to survive. Infected and extremely dangerous or not, these things had up till now been their schoolmates, their FRIENDS. And now to keep from being killed by THEM, they had to KILL THEM first.

I had to remind myself of that every second that we were together. Even though I have to admit, I was really not thinking about it at the time and was just pissed off at his actions.

These kids were doing the best they could, and they really did not need me pushing them too hard. But under the circumstances, I couldn't just coddle them either.

Sometimes as adults, we tend to forget what it was like to be young, and I'm no different. Although I do try really hard to remember how it was for me back in those days, when it comes to dealing with young people in life, as well as on my job.

In the short amount of time we have to deal with a victim on a scene, we try our best to gain a person's confidence while we are there, to try to convince the victim that we are there to help them. And that is extremely hard to do, when a person is so afraid that he pushes away everyone trying to help him or her. It's not easy to do, and we are not always successful.

Teenagers are smarter than we give them credit for, and no, I'm not just saying that. Don't believe me? Try working a smart phone without a manual. I had to have an 8 year old show me how to use mine.

Or maybe it's just me.

* * *

Again, I'm no authority on the human psyche, but I've learned that when teens are beginning to feel their independence, and are trying to work towards being adults. Whenever they try to apply themselves to something they feel is important, they usually put forth their best efforts into it.

And while teens HATE being patronized, extreme criticism of their efforts can also unfortunately, make them lose all motivation to keep trying, especially, if the adult continuously downplays or severely criticizes the sincere efforts of the teen trying to do his best.

It's one reason I refuse to be a jerk with new rookies that we would hire in the Dept. Most of those guys were in their early 20's, and eager to learn the trade.

The old school mentality of some of the older guys was to act like some sort of Drill Instructor and treat the poor kid like he's lower than dirt. That stuff was understandable back in the Academy, but in my honest opinion, that stuff has no place in the firehouse.

While I DO believe, that we ALL have to EARN the right to be in whatever our profession of choice is, that we signed up for. I don't believe in any of that bullying crap, and I've always taken the younger guys that were eager to learn, under my wing every chance I got.

I take the mentor role seriously. And I never saw much benefit in helping a rookie learn an extremely difficult and dangerous trade by constantly calling him a dumbass and telling him to go mop the floor. Too many kids in the past that were treated that way, tended to be too afraid to ask a question or approach a veteran with a problem until something bad happened and by then, it's way too late.

That mentality is not as common as in times past, thank goodness. But it still shows up from time to time. It's not a practice I have ever believed in.

Of course, that's just me.

Not wanting Takashi to feel like he had just compromised us, even though he probably HAD come close to doing exactly just that, I tried to make him feel that it wasn't all that bad, and convince him that it was not the end of the world. Still, I was biting my tongue a bit doing so. I mean seriously, hadn't I just said just before I opened the door, "NO UNNECESSARY NOISE?"

I put my hand on his shoulder and gave him a friendly squeeze. Then, I motioned everyone over and gave them some last second instructions so WE wouldn't screw up again. And yes, I did say "WE" as in it was just as much my fault as Takashi's.

Maybe I could have been clearer on my instructions and avoided this in the first place somehow. Although I still really don't see where I dropped the ball on that one. I thought I had been pretty clear.

Ah well.

* * *

As the guy's in SEAL Team say, "There's no "I" in "TEAM." We would all triumph or we would all fail together.

And it's not just the SEAL's. The whole "TEAM" thing is not something we take lightly in ANY service, military or rescue or police. It takes everyone doing their jobs and covering everybody's back to succeed and come back alive.

Think that's silly, touchy-feely nonsense?

Then come over here, grab a weapon and take over, bub.

By all means then, please step up and impress the hell out of me, won't you?

* * *

"Ok, well done guys." I said trying to be encouraging and not let them see the vein popping out of my head.

"Ya'll handled that pretty good, and no one got hurt. BUT, from now on, IT'S IMPORTANT that from this point on, NO NOISE, okay?"

"This isn't a Kurosawa film," I continued. "Were we all go rushing on a battlefield screaming our heads off with swords drawn and crossing swords in a crash of steel."

"From here on out you are a bunch of ninja's and you move silently, and you strike WITHOUT warning! Got it?" I said looking each of them in the eye.

They all nodded their heads in agreement and as I looked into Takashi's face, I could see he still felt pretty bad about nearly losing control. He was a good kid, and I didn't want him getting so discouraged that he wouldn't even try to show any initiative in the future. So I put my hand on his shoulder and looked into his face.

"Son, it's ok. I'm not upset with you alright? The bad guys are down, and everyone's fine. Don't worry about it, ok?" I said as he looked at me, while Rei translated.

"Sure wish I knew the language better." I thought to myself. "I'd really love to be able to talk to this boy without an interpreter."

When Rei had finished speaking, Takashi smiled, although I could see, he was still a little upset with himself.

I clapped him on the shoulder, and gave him a friendly smile. "Let it go, son. You're still my main man, and we got a job to do, and everyone's depending on us, so let's not sweat the small stuff and get moving."

"Ok, everyone." I said focusing my attention on everyone else.

"Same thing as before. I got the point. Kouta, your behind me, and all of ya'll follow closely behind him. Don't get too spread out, and don't clump too close together either. OK?" There was a quick nod of heads from everyone and a few nervous looks.

"Allright gang, here we go." I said as I opened the door to the walkway and went through.

No sooner had we all gone through the doors and rounded a bend when we heard a young girl's scream.

* * *

There were four of them. Two boys and two girls on the second floor landing, and they weren't alone either.

There were four Infected teens headed downstairs and one coming from below and they were closing in in on the tiny group fast. Armed with only a bat, and a "sasumata," which is a restraining tool that resembles a large tuning fork and is often used to restrain rowdy students and dangerous adults that wander onto the school grounds.

The boys were trying their best to protect the two girls cowering behind them.

But with just the two of them and those feeble weapons they had no chance whatsoever.

Well, until we showed up that is.

And we had gotten there just in time to, just a couple more steps by the Infected students and it would have all been over.

The kids made quick work of dispatching the Infected students in record time. Kouta's shots were all on target and two of them fell, while Saeko, Takashi and Rei took care of the rest with a minimum of effort, and NO noise. THANK GOODNESS.

They took my ninja advice to heart I'm proud to say, although I would have liked to have seen a few less acrobatics though. But hey, they were working as a team and they weredoing a great job, so I tried not to micro-manage them.

Guess I needed to work on loosening the apron strings a bit myself, anyway.

However, there was one thing I needed to step in for.

* * *

After, all the Infected were put down, and all was quiet again, I heard Saeko ask the teens that were just rescued something I couldn't understand, and in response to Saeko's question, one of the girls raised her hands and shook her head vigorously and said something that sounded like "no we aren't" in Japanese. Rei said something in response and smiled as if everything was ok.

Time for a reality check, by the American jerk again, I guess.

I raised my carbine at the four teens on the stairway and ordered them in English "Weapons DOWN! Hands UP!"

The kids looked at me pointing my carbine at them, and froze. Saeko was shocked, and I could feel the eyeballs of all the teens as well as Shizuka's staring right at me, probably thinking I'd gone crazy.

"REI." I said in my most serious voice. " Tell them to drop their weapons, raise their hands, and turn around one-at-a-time."

Rei looked about as scared as could be, and she hesitated for a moment.

"Tell them it's important sweetie, because if they don't, I will have to shoot." I said, as I pressed the switch on my laser unit on and pointed it at the boy with the towel around his head and holding the bat.

"Please Rei." I said as seriously as I could.

Rei snapped out of it, and quickly translated my words as the boys quickly dropped their weapons and both they and the girls quickly raised their hands and rather clumsily, turned around as I had ordered one-at-a-time.

As soon as they finished and I could verify for myself that no one had been bitten, I motioned for them to pick up their weapons and raised the muzzle of my carbine away from the teens and then walked past all of them and Rei. I turned my head to look at all of them and saw the confused and frightened looks on their faces.

"DO NOT TAKE CHANCES, GUYS." I said again in my most serious tone, but trying NOT to sound angry.

"If you ever come across someone that might be a survivor, you DON'T get close to him until you are DOUBLE-SURE they are NOT Infected, UNDERSTAND? BE THOROUGH!"

I turned to the freaked out teens that had just been rescued and said "Gomen nasai" as I raised my carbine to my shoulder, saying "Let's move!" to the group as I descended down the stairs.

* * *

"What's HIS problem?" The boy armed with the bat whose name was Takuzo, asked Rei.

"I don't know." Rei replied with a pout.

"What a JERK!" Rei thought as she watched the American descend the stairs.

" Mo, I told him they were ok!" she thought angrily as she looked up at Takashi and shook her head.

Takashi looked at Saeko and as their eyes met, they exchanged worried glances. The American's words had made sense, but his methods worried them quite frankly. Takashi looked over at the teens who were still watching the big man going down the stairs, and practically shaking with fear.

"We're leaving this place." He said to them. "Do you wish to come with us?"

The young girl who had spoken earlier, somehow gained her composure and stuttered a bit, trying to get her words out. "Y-y-yes. We do."

Takashi shrugged as he passed Rei and waved for everyone to keep moving. Hopefully, things wouldn't get too ugly before it was all over.

He was wrong, it had just gotten a LOT worse.

* * *

They had entered the main building and were descending down the staircase straight towards the hallway leading out to the main entrance when the American raised his fist. It was one of the signals he had taught them, and they halted immediately without a sound. Well, except for Saya that is.

"What is it?" She whispered, LOUDLY.

Everyone looked at her with an angry look including Kouta, who had never dared to do that before. Saya gulped and held her tongue as everyone watched the American below turn towards them and raise his hand and then pointed his fingers in a "V" towards his eyes. He then motioned for them to move back. The group quietly moved back up towards the landing, as Kouta and Takashi walked up to them, their faces grim.

"What is it?" Rei asked, extremely anxious at seeing the looks on the boy's faces.

"There's a LOT of them." Takashi said his voice low and the look on his face etched in worry.

Saya, a little annoyed that everyone was hiding like frightened school kids when she had already proven that THEY only reacted to noise, voiced her annoyance on everyone's hesitation.

"They only react to sounds. They CAN"T really see us. So it's POINTLESS to hide from THEM." She said in a huff.

"Okay, Takagi, I want you to prove that theory of yours for us then." Takashi shot right back at her.

Saya gulped, and said nothing more. She wasn't THAT confident that they didn't react to sounds. After all, Kouta had shot all the Infected teens up in the foyer earlier. There was no time to study ALL their characteristics with 100% certainty.

"But even if we stay inside the school, once we get attacked, we're going to be trapped." Saeko calmly pointed out.

"Then we have no choice then but to go through the gate." Rei said resignedly.

"Then someone needs to go and confirm Takagi's theory." Saeko said, stating the only obvious option left for them.

Takashi sighed as the weight of the girl's words fell heavily on him. They were right, someone needed to check and see if Takagi was correct that the Infected teens would react only to sound. If it was true, then they could leave this place NOW without having to fight a horde of Infected all the way to the mini-bus. The only other option was to have the American start shooting, which would serve to draw who –knew- how- many hordes towards them that they would all have to fight through, to reach the mini-bus before they could get away. OR, they could go around try to take another route which would take more time and could possibly be no better than this place. Takashi was beside himself as to what to do.

"Think dammit." He thought to himself. But in truth, there was only one answer.

* * *

"I'll go." He finally stated.

Everyone gasped at his words. They had not expected Takashi to volunteer for this most dangerous task. They had been thinking of asking the American what he thought they should do, as he was still near the bottom of the stairs, studying the Infected and surely, trying to figure a way out.

Rei however, had personal reasons as to why she felt Takashi shouldn't go, and was the first to speak.

"Takashi, you shouldn't go! I'll go instead!" She quickly offered.

Saeko was not to be silent either on the matter. "I should be the one to go first." She offered, a little more determination in her voice than Rei.

Takahashi had remembered the American's words up in the faculty room about he and Saeko taking charge of the group if the worst should happen. And after losing control up in the foyer. Takashi had begun to feel more responsible for his actions and for the safety of the group. He looked in their eyes and he knew what he had to do.

"I can't ask anyone else to do this. What kind of man would I be, putting their lives in danger?"

"Busujima-sempai. Please stand by just in case." Takashi said, his face turned away from them.

Rei however, was stunned. "Takashi, WHY?" She couldn't comprehend why he was willingly putting his life in danger.

Was it because of guilt over having to kill Hisashi, or was it the ugly words she had yelled at him as the boy she had started to like that she had left Takashi for, lay dead on the small observation deck?

"I don't KNOW why." Takashi said, his voice sounding very distant.

"You don't know why?" Rei said confused.

Takashi turned around and looked right at her. The eyes looked so sad, so lonely, so distant. Rei was completely dumbfounded by what Takashi was about to do. And when he turned around and started walking back down the stairs, Rei could stand it no more.

"Takashi!" She said in a loud voice and lunged to stop him, but was caught by Saeko before she could take another step.

"I understand your feelings, but do NOT interfere with him" Saeko warned her, as Takashi stepped near the American crouched near the bottom of the stairs. "This was his decision, and a woman shouldn't interfere when a man has made up his mind."

* * *

"Yup, we're boned." I thought grimly.

I scanned the hallway as best I could without sticking out like a piñata. There was easily about twenty of them, most off to the right. There were at least a dozen shuffling around, with about eight to my left that I could see. I could see the bus way out in the parking light shining like a big white beacon of hope. Might as well be in Houston for all that it mattered now.

I blew a deep sigh of frustration. Well, no way was I going to put these kids at risk with our earlier tactics, and I couldn't afford to compromise us by opening fire and taking out every Infected student in the hallway fast enough before the rest of the school came a shuff-shuff-shuffling along looking for dinner.

There really was only one choice without getting everyone killed, and that was to backtrack and find another route with less Infested lurching around and then try to break through them somehow. This path in front of us was just plain suicide.

I got up and stretched my legs and let out another sigh, and prepared myself to go back upstairs and give the group the bad news, when I suddenly felt a presence next to me.

"Takashi?" I said quietly, startled to see the kid right next to me, when he was supposed to be upstairs with the others.

"What are you doing here, son?" I asked him quietly.

"I have to do this." He told me in English as he looked me in the eye and took a couple steps down the stairs.

"You have to do WHAT? HEY!" I hissed at him as I grabbed his school jacket sleeve, trying to hold him back. The kid swung his arm back and broke my weak grip on his sleeve and kept going. I was about to lunge and forcefully grab and pull him back upstairs thinking he'd lost it, when a gentle but firm hand grabbed my shoulder. I looked up at the one who had grabbed me and saw Saeko looking down at me with a VERY serious expression on her face and with an even MORE serious tone in her voice, as she spoke to me saying, "DON"T try to stop him. He HAS to do this." She said.

"What the hell do you mean he HAS to do THIS?" I whispered angrily.

"Have all these kids gone crazy?" I thought. "DAMMIT!"

I broke away from her grip, and took a few steps down till I had a better vantage point.

"DAMN FOOL KID!" I swore under my breath.

"You better have a good reason for this STUPID stunt." I thought to myself as I raised my carbine up and swept the hallway around the stealthily walking teen.

* * *

It had only been a few moments since he had walked onto the floor, and already he was surrounded by a mass of THEM. Takashi was more scared than he had ever been in his life, and was seriously second-guessing the wisdom of what he was doing. So far though, Takagi's theory had been proven right. The shuffling Infected teens seemed to take no notice of him at all standing in the middle of the main entrance whatsoever. Takashi breathed a sigh of relief." Perhaps we could get by here as long as everybody could stay quiet and we could,…" Takashi began to think.

Takashi's thoughts were terrifyingly interrupted, when suddenly an Infected teen lurched forward out of nowhere and came directly at him. Just as Takashi's heart skipped a beat at seeing the boy coming towards him, his heart then nearly stopped altogether, when the Infected teen suddenly, for no apparent reason, lunged forward with jaws agape. Takashi held his breath as the boy came. A bright red dot glowed upon the boy's forehead, and Takashi's first thought was, "NO! They'll HEAR!" But the expected gunshot never came as the boy walked right past Takashi and continued on.

Takashi, his face sweating, looked back at the American who was busy scanning the room for any more threats near him. The man didn't look directly at Takashi, but he did not look very happy at all, and as he scanned the spot where Takashi stood. He shook his head as if he was really upset with him.

"And he has every right to be mad at me." Takashi thought. "This WAS pretty stupid. Ah well, I might as well finish this." He said, as he spotted the blood-stained shoe of a student and reaching down for it, he threw it with all his might at a row of lockers down the hall with a loud "WHOMP" as it banged against them.

All the Infected teens within earshot suddenly stopped their haphazard shuffling and instinctively lurched forward to the new sound and the source of food that they were constantly seeking.

I watched as the Infected Teens all went past Takashi like a sea of death passing around him. It was a miracle none of them brushed up against him. I did my best to cover him, but with that many moving around, all it would take was one wrong move and NOTHING I did would save him. Finally, they all filed past him and I stepped down to the floor and scanned down the hallway to the left where the Infected teens I had seen were.

They were gone now and headed in the direction of the noise from the thrown shoe. I than scanned to the right, and kept my carbine trained on the mob down the hall, as Takashi quietly opened one of the front doors. I nodded my head to him as he then motioned for the others to follow, as Saeko came down the stairs and opened the other door. And then everyone else came down the stairs and filed out quietly.

I was beside myself with anger with the boy though. The kid had done a VERY brave thing, and now we were now on our way out of this building, and closer to getting away from this nightmare. It was good thinking and very courageous. And it was also the most dim-witted, unnecessarily reckless, dumb-assed, lame-brained, stupidly moronic, foolhardy, knuckle-headed, unnecessarily reckless, ( Did I say that already? I DID? Sorry.) most FOOLISH stunt the kid had done yet.

When the kid looked at me, I felt like Charles Bronson's character Bernardo in the movie "The Magnificent Seven", when the young gunslinger Chico played by actor Horst Buchholz had nearly got his head blown off by a bullet and then looked around at everyone as if he had done a good thing by nearly getting himself killed as Charles Bronson's character shook his head in disgust.

OH BOY, when this was over, the kid and I were gonna have a SERIOUS man-to-man talk about this crazy stunt of his. For now though, his plan had worked just fine, and we were on our way to safety. Or so I thought.

It seemed to me that Takashi wasn't the only boy I was going to chew out by days end after all, when a sudden "CLANG!" came from the staircase. I spun my head around and wanted to shoot the kid coming down the stairs. While everyone else had quietly and carefully come down the stairs without a sound, the last kid carrying the sasumata, had come will-nilly, skipping down the stairs like it was a regular day at school and slammed the damn thing against the staircase rail.

The sound of metal on metal sounded like a friggin' church bell ringing in the long hallway. I bet you could hear the sound for miles as hard as this idiot had slammed it against the rail. All of a sudden I heard Takashi yell something loud and then ALL the Infected teens in the hallway turned around, and with jaws agape just like piranhas, looked straight at ME.

* * *

"THANKS A LOT FOR RINGING THE DINNER BELL, YA DUMB-ASS!" I roared as the kid ran whimpering out the door. My patience was now completely gone. I raised my carbine again to my shoulder and fired at the approaching Infected teens coming at me and then quickly turned and ran out the door.

Saya was yelling at Takashi outside and then started shouting at me for shooting I guess, as I ran out the door, passing them both.

"MOVE DAMMIT! THIS AIN'T NO TIME TO BE ARGUING! MOVE YOUR ASS!" I roared as the teens stared at me. I heard Saya squeal as an Infected teen lunged at her from inside, but Saeko managed to take him out before he reached her.

The scene was bad, they were coming from EVERYWHERE, and we were quickly going to be overwhelmed if these kids didn't STOP talking and start MOVING.

Rei had just knocked down a young girl with her makeshift spear and for some reason decided now was a good time to argue with Takashi and Saya. Meanwhile Kouta , all by himself, was busy freaking out because he was too busy trying to acquire a target in his sights from the rapidly growing mob shuffling toward us from the front. So much for staying together and working as a team.

"QUIT TALKING AND MOVE! I roared as I pushed past them and started blasting away with my carbine, sending infected students spinning right and left from the impact of the bullets as they fell to the ground.

Takashi without warning, suddenly came up on my left side, and whacked an Infected student in the face with his bat, dislocating the thing's jaw as it fell in a heap to the ground.

I tried to go around him to avoid shooting him, now that he was in my line of fire, and nearly got hit with his bat in the process, as he swung it to the ground spraying the pavement with blood.

"Watch that thing, dammit!" I yelled as I shot two more Infected students and moved towards the front again firing as I went. Something must have snapped in the kid, because I heard him yell something and suddenly I could hear everyone start running up from behind me.

Takashi looked out over the scene and took it all in. The American was busy cutting a swath through THEM to make it possible for Takashi and the rest to make a run for the bus.

But the American could NOT do it all for them, no matter how well armed or trained he was. They needed to fight as well, and right now, they were not fighting as a team like before but were falling apart into chaos. He had to do something to get his friends to safety and he needed to do it NOW. The American was right, it was time to quit screwing around and MOVE!

"ENOUGH TALKING! RUN!" He roared to everyone. "JUST RUN!" "RUN!"

And suddenly, just like that, the indecision, second-guessing, and arguing amongst themselves disappeared. And as one, they ran for their lives.

* * *

And were nearly all accidentally shot by the American, who quickly swung his carbine upwards to avoid hitting them as they all ran right past him at full speed while he had been firing upon the scores of Infected directly in front of all of them.

The American swore as they passed him by. He then shook his head and started running after them, saying some things in In English and in his native tongue that did not sound very nice at all.

"Well…," I thought sourly. "At least they've stopped yapping and started MOVING finally!"

Problem was, they were moving TOO FAST, and got themselves in the middle of one hell of a mess. If any of us survived this, there was going to be hell to pay for breaking ranks and charging like a bunch of barbarians head-on into a fight. I shouldn't have been surprised though, they were not trained former military, or even newly-trained guerilla fighters. They were civilians with blunt weapons and a whole lot of fear giving them the courage to fight right now.

Still, I wanted to tear my hair out at seeing them run recklessly out into all that mess. However, they weren't doing too badly. Saeko, Takashi, and Rei were kicking some serious butt, with Kouta doing some pretty good shooting himself, while Shizuka and Saya ran close behind them. The other four teens were just trying to keep up and let the other four do most of the fighting. The kid who had stirred the hornet's nest had dropped his sasumata way back at the main entrance, so he was out of the game.

I shook my head in disgust and raced past all of them trying to help the other four make a hole in the horde big enough for everyone to make it through. If I had known what was going to happen next, I would have held back and covered the four stragglers instead of trying to make it to the bus with the rest. I was running alongside the kids, firing my carbine at an Infected teen here and there which was not easy going at a dead run with a more than 120 pound pack on my back. It wasn't a fully loaded 200 pound Bergen like the SAS boys carried, but it was a miracle that I was able to keep pace with the kids at all and I was starting to huff and puff pretty good at that point.

"Getting old, old man." I said between huffs.

First thing I noticed as I was getting closer to the bus, was that the horde of Infected was starting to clear a bit, and then I noticed about 100 feet from the bus that I had actually PASSED the kids, and I realized something was wrong.

I mean, I'm not THAT quick a runner.

* * *

I immediately turned around when I heard a young boy's scream and looked in horror as one of the four stragglers had somehow gotten himself surrounded and was trapped in the clutches of a group of infected and was now being dragged down and bitten as he fell. I let out a deep sigh and felt my heart get heavy when I heard the boy screaming for his girlfriend to run, and she screamed his name in response and pulled away from Saya to return to her boyfriend, even though it was suicide. There was no way for me to stop her short of shooting her.

And thankfully, her screams of pain as she and her boyfriend disappeared under the pile of writhing bodies were mercifully cut short. The danger to those left standing was far from over though however, especially after the group all stopped to watch the horrible scene, instead of running towards safety.

People do that all the time, rubber-neck the most horrible scene they've ever witnessed in their lives and then hang around to watch and discuss it with other people in the crowd, talking about it in horror and how tragic the whole thing is, when the scene is still very much a dangerous place to be around, and then they get mad when you try to move them back for their own safety.

That's what was happening here as Saya, Shizuka and Rei, seemed to want to watch and ponder the deeper meaning of life while they were slowly being surrounded by Infected they couldn't see because, THEY,….WERE,…. TOO,…. BUSY,…. TALKING!

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YA"LL DOING WAY OVER THERE!" I roared. "GET YOUR THUMBS OUT OF YOUR BUTTS AND GET OVER HERE! NOW! DAMMIT! NOW!" I yelled as I raised my carbine and fired at the head of an Infected girl reaching for Saya. The girl fell to the ground as Kouta moved up to protect her, saying something I couldn't hear and which earned him another angry verbal assault from the spoiled princess.

Ah well, opposites attract.

"WILL YOU PEOPLE, PLEASE, MOVE YOUR ASSES?!" I yelled in frustration. Seriously man, did these people really just want to stay and enjoy the great outdoors and wax poetic while killer zombies approached from all directions? It's like they were just asking to be served as a hot lunch, geez.

Fortunately, Takashi got everyone moving again and I started to cover them, firing at the infected that got too close while they made for the bus.

"Glad ya'll could take time away from ya'lls little pow-wow, and join me!" I shot at them sarcastically as they all ran past.

"Sorry." Saeko yelled as she ran past. "We didn't mean to fall behind."

Well, SHE was at least still using her head. The rest of them were all pretty much still on my shit-list though.

* * *

I heard Takashi yell at Shizuka for the key to the bus, and I heard them scramble aboard, as Saeko, Takashi, and I covered everyone. I then heard Kouta talking as he opened a window and just as quickly heard Saya screaming behind him.

"Those two sound like they've been married an AWFULLY long time." I thought as I chuckled to myself listening to the two of them despite the danger going on around me.

I heard the bus start up and I then yelled at the two teens to get on board and spun around to join them. Just as I was about to follow them through the door, I heard faint voices yelling from behind me, and I immediately turned around. It was another group of teens and one male teacher yelling for help, as they came running full speed in our direction.

"GREAT." I thought to myself as I grimaced at their plight. They were a LONG way off, and while there wasn't nearly as many Infected cluttered around as before when we went through, there was still enough stumbling around out there close enough to reach out and touch them, unless I was able to take some out as they ran.

The second dilemma was, that there was a BUNCH of Infected lining up in front of us and blocking the exit to the main gate. So it was either leave the stragglers, and attempt to save ourselves, or wait a few more moments and risk being trapped without being able to leave the parking lot.

I didn't even think about all that until after I had pulled out my empty mag out of the well of my carbine and switched to the other clipped to its side, and shoved it in and slapped the bolt catch. I looked through the holosight on the Eotech and aimed the middle red dot, that I had zeroed the sight for 25 yards, and then raised the sight to the second red dot below that, which is the one I use for longer ranges, and began picking off Infected left and right, as the group ran for their lives toward us.

I could hear the angry shouts of the kids inside and I could kinda figure out the gist of what they were saying too. Some wanted to leave, some wanted to go. I couldn't blame them, fear affects everyone differently. You never know what you're going to do until you finally face it, and sometimes the things we do in the face of fear surprises even us. They sure were making a bit of a racket though, especially Rei.

Finally, the group of teens started to get closer to the bus as their teacher waved them on yelling encouragement. I was relieved that there was another adult in the mix finally. It would help greatly to put these kids at ease with another teacher on board.

Or so I thought anyway, until I saw a straggling teen that was running with schoolbooks in hand, of all things at a time like this, and then suddenly he slipped and fell to the ground in front of the teacher.

"Ouch." I thought.

" That looked like it hurt. Well, he can just help carry him while I keep the goons off of them." I figured.

I was glad we were almost out of here, the natives were definitely getting restless around here, and I really didn't want to share the pleasure of their company much longer.

At least that's what I expected the teacher to do. That's what ANY decent person would have done I've always believed. Fear makes you do strange things alright, but that still didn't prepare me for what the teacher did next.

The man looked at the kid clutching his heel for a moment and then sadistically kicked the boy right in the face shattering his glasses as the boy howled in pain and covered his face with his hands screaming in agony, with his screams raising in pitch as a gang of Infected students descended on him and he disappeared underneath a writhing mass of them.

The Eotech sight isn't a scope, so it's not magnified. But I could have sworn the bastard was smiling as he turned around and straightened his jacket and walked calmly towards the bus as if he had all the time in the world.

"WHAT THE HELL DID HE JUST DO?!" I said aghast. "Did he REALLY just do what I thought he did?!"

I couldn't believe my eyes at the cold-heartedness of his act, and there was no way in hell THIS S.O.B. was getting on board with the rest of the kids till I got some answers as to what the HELL he thought he was thinking by doing that. As he approached the bus and stopped a few feet away from me, he hesitated a bit at seeing me standing there all heavily armed and blocking the door to the bus. Like I said, it's not every day you see a heavily armed American on the grounds of a Japanese High school on a bright sunny day very often I imagine.

Wonder how he felt about seeing a heavily armed, and ROYALLY, PISSED-OFF American, pointing a fully automatic carbine directly at his chest, on the grounds of a Japanese High school on a bright sunny day.

* * *

The man gasped as I suddenly raised my carbine to my shoulder and took three steps towards him as he stopped about twelve feet from me. I pointed the muzzle directly at him and yelled for all to hear.

"WHAT THE HELL, DID YOU JUST DO?!" I roared at him as he stepped back.

"ANSWER ME ASSWIPE!" I yelled again.

"N-N-Nani-O" The teacher stammered, as his brow began to sweat profusely. He said some other words in Japanese that I couldn't understand, and then made the mistake of trying to walk towards me speaking calmly as if he were a negotiator trying to talk ME down from doing something crazy.

Uh-Uh. Momma didn't raise no fool. I squeezed a shot off over his head and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing him duck. He was lucky, if I had been the gang-banger type of latino, I'd have already emptied a mag in him and then tagged him out of spite. As it was, I was REALLY tempted to do that anyway.

"Yiiiiiiiiiii!" he screamed as he covered his head with his hands looking at me with a mixture of fear and anger in his eyes.

I heard the kids screaming in shock at the spectacle of me and the teacher outside. I guess my sudden confrontation with their teacher and shooting a round over his head was a bit of a shock for them. Guess they hadn't seen what this slimy bastard had done to one of their own. Ah well, so I'm the bad guy again. Story of my life. Yippee.

"JIMU-SAN!" I heard Saeko yell. "Why are you doing this?! PLEASE STOP!"

If any of these kids had proven themselves to be courageous, level-headed, and strong, it was Saeko. I really wished I had a daughter like her. You know, to smack Saya around.

"Saeko-chan! I yelled " Tell this man to answer me, or I am going to KILL HIM!" I roared as I pressed the switch on the laser unit and aimed it at his chest for emphasis.

* * *

At this range, there was no way I could miss the guy this close. The only reason I flipped on the laser was to reassure the teacher that he was going to very well die right here and now, if he didn't explain why he had just killed a helpless boy begging for help.

Saeko yelled at the teacher in Japanese, to which the teacher blubbered out something, I couldn't make heads or tails of even if I did speak Japanese. I could tell Saeko was having a hard time understanding him too.

"SPEAK UP!" I yelled as the man freaked out again at the laser dot pointed on his chest. He spoke again a lot more clearly this time.

"He says he doesn't know what you're talking about Jimu-san, PLEASE! They're getting CLOSER!" She said her voice sounding desperate.

"THE HELL HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" I yelled, about as pissed off now as I've never been before.

I pointed the muzzle and the laser directly at the man's face and yelled once again for all to hear.

"SAEKO!" I yelled. "TELL THIS GREASY-HEADED, SLIMY LOOKING, RAT - F_CK SON OF A BITCH, THAT HE HAS EXACTLY THREE SECONDS TO TELL ME WHY HE KICKED THAT BOY IN THE FACE AND LEFT HIM TO DIE, OR I'M GOING TO SHOOT HIM AND LEAVE HIM HERE TO ROT!

Saeko and the rest of the kids were all screaming on board the bus now, probably because of my confrontation with the teacher and probably also because of the rapidly approaching Infected closing in around us. They were not helping things with their panicked yelling to help smooth down the situation either though. I quickly turned to my left and shot two Infected teachers who were approaching from the rear of the bus, and quickly turned back to the terrified teacher as they fell to the ground. The kids in the bus screamed at the shots and then fell silent.

Thank goodness for small miracles.

* * *

The man still hesitated and by now I'd had enough. But even though I was angry for what he did, and the guy was without a doubt a sure-fire threat for sure, I wasn't a murderer even if he was. But, if he didn't explain his actions, there was no way he was getting on the bus until I got some answers.

"SAEKO! TELL HIM NOW!" I yelled once again.

Saeko quickly translated my words to the teacher. And he did the wrong thing. He hesitated at giving an answer right away, which told me his sick mind was trying to hide something.

"San!" I counted off in Japanese, as I took my finger off the trigger guard and placed it directly on the trigger.

"Ni!" The man started to stammer something, but it sounded like gibberish to me.

"Ichi" Still nothing.

"Goodbye asshole." I said calmly and smiled as I started to squeeze the trigger.

"MATTE!" The man screamed as tears fell from his eyes, and he quickly sputtered some words that Saeko had to ask him to repeat again. Saeko's voice was really getting to sound more desperate as she yelled the man's words to me in English.

"Shido-sensei says the boy was bitten and he was just trying to get away!" Saeko yelled. "Jimu-san,PLEASE, they're real close now! PLEASE STOP THIS!"

"BULLSHIT!" I roared. That boy's screaming didn't sound like he was Infected. But, if he had been bitten, and hadn't turned yet, I could see then why the teacher would be desperate enough to be so brutal in trying to get away from him.

Still, that smirk on his face didn't look like that of a man regretting the death of a child he had to leave behind in order to save his own life. The bastard looked like he enjoyed it.

"OJI-CHAN! PLEASE!" Saeko was begging now, referring the respectful Japanese term of "uncle" to me to try to calm me down and end this mess peacefully.

I did NOT trust this man, and I made it VERY clear when I aimed my muzzle to my right and switched my carbine to full auto and emptied the entire magazine roaring like a madman. It was a stupid thing to do, wasting ammo that way, but I was pissed, and I was making a point at the same time, so screw it. I did manage to knock a few down with my wild shooting.

Meh, Shizuka could finish them off with the bus when we ran over them on the way out.

* * *

When the bolt of my carbine slammed on an empty chamber, I let my carbine hang by its sling and I pulled out my Sig Navy pistol, and grabbed the man by the lapel of his expensive suit and pulled him towards the bus and then slammed him against the side of the bus so hard the bus rocked a little as he crashed into it. I then cocked the hammer of my pistol and put it under his chin and hissed into his face.

"I don't care if you can really understand me or not bub. But if you're lying to me, you had better PRAY I never find out, because if I do, and if I EVER see you do something like that again, or even THINK that you're going to ever jeopardize these kid's lives, I'm NOT going to hesitate."

" I'm just going to shoot you in the gut, you rat bastard, and then I'm going to feed you to THEM while you're still alive! GOT IT?!" I yelled.

I didn't care if he got it or not to be honest, I just pulled him away from the side of the bus and roughly shoved him through the door as I fired my pistol at some more Infected in front of the bus before stepping in and shutting the door behind me. I doffed my pack as Takashi yelled at Shizuka to take off finally, and not a moment too soon either. The line of Infected that had been gathering in front of the bus began to look more like a lynch mob.

I didn't know it was possible to do in a vehicle this size, but somehow Shizuka popped the clutch and tires squealing, we took off like a shot across the parking lot.

I hurled myself in the passenger seat next to her to keep from being hurled to the floor instead, and then quickly buckled myself in. Shizuka was extremely upset at the situation laid out in front of her, which was understandable. There was just no way to get past the horde of Infected and reach the front gate without running most of them down.

I was about to yell at her to punch it, but she was already way ahead of me.

"Ningen, ja nai! Ningen, ja nai!" (They're not Human! They're not human!) She kept repeating to herself, as she shifted into higher gear and plowed into all of them swerving left and right as body turned to jelly under our tires and caused her to lose traction at certain points.

As we came close to the gate, I motioned to her to slow down, and then told it to her outright.

"Shizuka, stop! I'll get out and,….AWWWW SHIT! I yelled as we slammed, full speed through the gates and out into the road, fish-tailing as we swerved down the road.

* * *

We were clear. But not quite safe, as Shizuka was still flying at blinding speed, down the steep hill I had climbed up earlier to escape a crowd of Infected I had passed on the way up. Not wanting to plow head on into that bunch again if they were still on the road somewhere ,or fly off the hill going at break-neck speed around a tight corner either, I reached over and put my hand on Shizuka's hand on the shifter and calmly told her to ease down on the accelerator.

"Shizuka." We're clear. Slow down. We're OK now." I said looking at her, as her eyes got full of tears and she sniffed. She had been through a lot today as it was. And running down a bunch of teens, Infected or not, was not an easy thing to get over right away. Still, it wouldn't do to go through all that, just to finally have all of us crash and die in a high speed accident running for safety.

Shizuka blinked her eyes and tears fell as she down-shifted and slowed down the speeding bus. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at her.

"Are you ok, hon?" I asked.

She didn't answer, but just shook her head up and down and mouthed the words "Yes" and "Thank You", as she blinked the tears from her eyes and then smiled at me. And then she blushed suddenly.

I wondered what was wrong, and then I realized that my hand was still on hers as she was driving. I quickly took my hand off hers and apologized as she laughed. It was only then that I noticed the extremely large slit up her dress that she or someone had torn up the side of her dress. She also saw me staring at the shapely leg sticking out from underneath and laughed even louder. Now it was my turn to blush.

Busted, old man.

* * *

Author's Notes:

When I came across this part of the story when the group makes their escape, I wanted to make it exciting, but one thing I'm trying NOT to do is be the kind or writer that makes himself the hero and everybody else is helpless without him. Part of the appeal I believe of HOTD is the story of a bunch of kids growing up and dealing with the life or death situation of a zombie apocalypse, without any adults around and handling things on their own. I'm still working on it, so that this whole story is NOT centered on any one person, especially the character who's supposed to portray me. It's a work in progress.

Another problem I faced in this story is how my character and Shido would interact when they met each other. I had so many choices to choose from. I could put down that I was shooting and didn't see him kick the boy, I could have put down that I saw nothing, or THOUGHT I saw something.

So many scenarios to choose from, and no idea which one to choose. Normally, I'm pretty much a laid-back, easy-going person that my friends at work, and my brother can testify to. I've never talked or treated anyone like my character did to Shido in his chapter, and I thought it would be a great way to help the story be more dramatically pivotal in explaining Shido's decent into madness and Jim's struggle with his conscience after being "Mr Nice Guy Fireman" all his life. And then now, having to think like a combat soldier, and his personal struggles with it changing him.

So after sleeping on it last night, I came up with the direct approach, and went all East Side San Antonio local boy on him.

There are two things I hate in this world, and in my job, I've seen a LOT of it. Child abusers, is one of them.

So since he fell under one of those categories, it was easy to get all medieval on Shido. And by doing that, it will also make the story a lot more interesting as well when they meet up again in later chapters.

And when I mean interesting, I mean that Shido becomes quite a bit more evil than just wanting to rule the "world" he envisions. He wants revenge on the man and the group of teens that humiliated him, and starts to hunt them down with his "army."


	11. Chapter 10- A House Divided

Last Alarm

Chapter Ten

"A House Divided"

* * *

On a lonely stretch of road winding down the side of a very large hill, a small bus sped with its pitifully small cargo of frightened survivors desperately fleeing the scene of one grotesque horror, to an as yet unknown disaster awaiting them that none of the passengers on board were yet aware of.

All except for one of their number, and in his quiet thoughts the man from another land already knew that what the small band of survivors traveled towards would be an even greater nightmare than the one they had just barely escaped with their lives from, just a short time ago.

The interior of the bus was quiet, save for the few whispered words of relief spoken by the young students grateful to be alive and by all appearances, safe from the clutches of the ravenous monsters which earlier that same day, had once been their close friends and schoolmates. Now, all that remained had been left behind, shuffling in all directions with unseeing eyes, mere husks of their former selves. No longer human, but a vicious evil that the remaining survivors now had to avoid, or destroy, in order to survive. The life the survivors huddled together in the small bus had known just a few hours ago that morning was without their fully realizing it yet was now gone,…possibly forever.

For now though, as it is with most people who have just escaped the clutches of death, the sweet joy of being alive was what occupied their minds right now, and such distant thoughts and bleak outlooks were not yet on their minds.

However, with some people that still continue to walk this earth, to have survived death and still live, is not enough to make them content. Even after escaping death twice in the same day, there was one amongst them that unlike the rest, was not happy with the prospect of just being alive. Rather, in his dark thoughts, the only thing the man rejoiced about, was the fact that he had survived long enough to be able to end the life of another.

Long before the Outbreak, the Infected had not been the only monsters in this world.

Nor would they be the only ones to come out of it either.

* * *

"How DARE HE!" Shido thought, staring at the back of the American sitting in the front passenger seat of the bus next to the school nurse. "HOW DARE HE!" Shido screamed in his mind, over and over again.

The hatred he had for the American was boiling over in his mind and in his heart to the point of nearly threatening to explode, as Koichi Shido gritted his teeth and desperately wanted to explode in front of everyone around him and challenge the American openly as to what right he had to push HIM around the way he did back on the school grounds.

"ME! Shido gritted. "ME! HOW DARE he manhandle me and bark at me as if I were some weakling he could just push around! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?! F_CKING GAIJIN! I'm the REAL authority and protector of these students, I'm the REAL,…."

Just as he was about to continue his hate-filled rant, a thought had suddenly entered his clouded mind, and gave reason for Shido to pause for a moment.

And then a smile formed on his lips.

Throughout mankind's history, some of the greatest inventions, plans, schemes and conquests have started from simple origins. Sometimes unintentionally entering the minds of those men considered geniuses or madmen depending on the reward or calamity such things have affected mankind after they reached fruition.

Sometimes these brilliant thoughts entered the person's mind with the quickness and clarity of a lightning bolt through a cloudy sky, or sometimes gradually taking shape over time appearing first as a murky vision eventually taking shape like a small glowing light growing stronger and stronger in a clouded dream. Some of these idealists push their new thoughts forward with a hope to benefit mankind, and share in the joy of their new idea.

But as history has shown sadly, some only do so with a desire to benefit themselves, and as in this case, use their knowledge and efforts to bring an end to the life of those that have somehow offended them.

Like those who have done so before in the past, and so it was at this particular moment, when rage had reached its peak and the darkest hate had filled his heart to overflowing. Somewhere within those dark thoughts that clouded his mind searching to satiate his lust for revenge against the man who had threatened his life and humiliated him in front of all his students.

It was then, that an idea formed in Shido's mind, shining like a white light in a void of darkness, growing bigger and gaining strength, then gradually shining brighter as a simple thought turned into a plan, and then the plan itself started to unfold in his mind. And in the humble beginnings of that dark plan, things would now begin to go into effect on the American and those he was trying to protect, in a way that none of them could have possibly imagined.

It had come to his mind rather easily, Shido would later reflect. It had all started with a distant memory from another man that Shido hated with all his heart, his father. And it was such a simple little phrase that his father said to him one night in a drunken stupor, as his mother wept upstairs after an exceptionally loud argument his parents had over his father's frequent late bouts at the bar.

Most days back then would often find Shido's father arriving home late, drunk,and angry, raising such a clamor that all the neighbors could hear. On one particular night after an exceptionall brutal drunken tirade, his father had collapsed in a heap on the living area, refusing to go upstairs to bed and instead chose to lie on the floor, the smell of alcohol and stale vomit on his clothes.

"Hearts and minds." His father had said, slurring his words as if he were drowning as he lay on the floor..

"Hearts and minds, boy." The drunk repeated. "Win their hearts and minds. And they'll do whatever you want." His father had said as he passed out.

How ironic that the man he hated so vehemently, the man who had broken his mother's heart and led her down the long winding road to depression and then suicide, would be the one to offer him the only worthwhile advice he would ever give to his own son that was ever worth anything.

A drunken bit of advice from a miserable old fool that right now offered a simple solution to the BIG problem at hand, and offered the greatest opportunity to end the life of another man, that right now, Shido hated even more than the beast who had raised him.

Shido looked at the foreigner sitting in the front and pondered his thoughts.

It was foolish to try to wait for an opportunity to catch the American off guard and kill him with his own hands. The man was too big, too well armed, and from the looks of it, too well trained as well to attempt such a suicidal move.

"No." Shido thought, as he looked at the American, and tented his fingers beneath his chin. "Direct assault is stupid, and reckless, and,… beneath me."

"The BEST way to destroy THIS man, was not a direct physical attack, or, at least, not yet." Shido thought. "No, the best way to destroy this man, body AND soul, is for him to be betrayed by those he believes he's PROTECTING."

The thought of the man's demise at the very hands of the children he was worried about under the direction of Shido's hand, brought such glee to Shido's mind, that he licked his lips in the anticipation of implementing his brilliant plan. The question was, when would the opportunity present itself to be able to turn everyone against the American, now that the fool had yelled loud enough for the whole world to hear of his assault on the boy earlier as they had tried to escape? How would he be able to convince them that he was NOT a murderer, but instead was their REAL protector and not the gaijin? Without the other occupants in the bus being fully convinced that it was the American that was the threat, his plan would fail before it could even start.

As it turned out, Shido had nothing to worry about, as far as that was concerned.

"Sensei?" One of the young female students in his track team asked, interrupting his thoughts. "Are you allright? Did he hurt you?" She asked, her face a mask of worry and concern.

Shido was both pleasantly surprised and overjoyed at the sudden opportunity that had suddenly presented itself to put his plan into motion, and was quick to pounce upon the chance to redeem himself in front of his students. Miraculously it seemed, the children in his charge had decided that their loyalties lay in HIS hands after all, a man they already knew and trusted. And If that was indeed the case, the hard part had already been accomplished.

Shido wanted to burst out laughing.

The stupid American had already set the stage for his own doom by his actions earlier at the school. His attempt to protect the ones in his care had succeeded only in frightening the students further and had only pushed them closer into the "safety" of Shido's arms. It had all been too easy, and now the man's doom was sealed.

"I'm fine my dear." Shido said in his sweetest voice and flashing his brightest smile. "The man didn't hurt me, although I believe, he will eventually hurt SOMEONE if he continues to lose control like that."

"Is it true what he said sensei?" whispered one of the boys asking from across the bus where he sat. "About you kicking that other boy and leaving him?"

"Sadly, yes. It was an unfortunate act on my part that I'm very ashamed of." Shido answered, letting his face fall and putting on an air of great regret before them. "But the boy had been bitten, and I would have surely perished if I had continued to let him clutch me like that. Still, I regret I acted so hastly."

Tears fell from Shido's face as he beat his chest with his fist. "I will never forgive myself for such a disgraceful act. Perhaps HE should have killed me after all." Shido said indicating the American sitting silently in the front seat.

"SENSEI!" The girls said in the seat behind them, putting their hands on his shoulders in an attempt to comfort their teacher. "PLEASE, don't say such things! It wasn't your fault! Please! Don't blame yourself." They said with their faces tearing.

"Ah, my sweet children." Shido said wiping the tears from their cheeks. "You are so kind to show such mercy on someone so undeserving such as I. I can only hope that from now on, I can do a better job of protecting your young lives and not repeat my failure at trying to save that one poor lad that I couldn't."

"Sensei." The girls gushed, as their teacher smiled upon them.

"And now," Shido said, looking towards the front of the bus. "It seems I must protect you all from the monsters WITHIN our walls, as well as those outside."

Shido felt the grip of the small girl's hands on his shoulder as her voice quivered.

"Sensei, please don't go near him. He's crazy. He'll hurt you!" She said, tightening her grip.

Shido patted her hand gently. "Don't worry about me my dear." He said in a comforting tone. "Your lives are more important than my own, and what man would I be if I didn't try to protect the students I've always cared for so much?"

Shido turned his head back and looked upon the faces of his students in the back of the bus and smiled at them. "Do not worry, my students. I will do everything in my power including giving up my own life, to make sure your safe." He said, and then glanced again to the front of the bus.

"From all enemies." He finished, the mask falling from his face as a sudden look of fury took its place momentarily as Shido glared at his enemy. His new enemy, the man who was already so close to being crushed beneath his feet, and he didn't even know it yet.

"Patience though." Shido thought. "Patience. I must know all I can about my enemy, and I must further increase the pain of his betrayal before I crush him completely." He thought as he calmed himself down.

"Hearts and minds." His father had said. "Win their hearts and minds, and they will do whatever you ask."

"Indeed." Shido thought. " And whose heart and mind is easier to win,…..than that of a frightened child?"

* * *

"I'm SUCH an idiot" I thought to myself as we drove down the winding hill.

I had removed the clip off the empty magazines I had used and replaced them with fresh ones from my vest, and clipped them all together. I then put the empties away in my left trouser pocket, and counted up my remaining inventory in my head. I had used up 60 rounds of .223 ammo, and I now had 540 rounds left. Plus, I still had 100 rounds of .308 ammo for my M24 rifle and six full 18 round magazines for my Sig Navy pistol and two boxes of 9mm ammo left. Not bad, considering the fight we just came from. Still, I couldn't afford to be wasteful, so no more full-auto stunts for me again. I slapped the double magazine set-up in the well of my carbine and pressed the bolt catch. The snap of the bolt sliding forward made Shizuka and everyone sitting close by jump at the sound. And again I was reminded of how badly I had royally screwed up everyone's trust in me with my little stunt with the teacher outside of the bus earlier.

"Sorry guys." I said looking around at everyone.

"And not just for the noise, either." I thought to myself, the weight of the guilt I felt within me, started to crush me like a load of concrete being poured from a cement trunk.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not some wishy-washy, second-guessing wussy that changes his mind and his moods in every direction like a leaf in the wind. I did what I felt I had to in order to get everyone on the bus safely.

And I had seen a potential threat to everyone's life when I saw what that teacher had done to that young boy, and I was only trying to look out for everyone's safety when I prevented him from getting onboard until I got some answers from him. Even though I admit, I let my emotions get away from me.

I couldn't help but want to tear that weaseling coward in the back of the bus apart, limb from limb for what he did to that boy, even if what he had said was indeed true, and the boy HAD been infected. What he did was an extremely brutal act however, no matter what the reason. So no, I wasn't having second thoughts that maybe I had jumped to conclusions about the teacher intentionally kicking a helpless boy in the face to die horribly.

No way. There was no mistake about this guy.

The expression on his face after the deed had been done, was NOT that of a person experiencing fear or regret for having to kick that boy away from him, because he feared for his life.

No. He had ENJOYED what he did to that boy, and seeing him do that, had brought out the very WORST in me.

Unfortunately, everyone else had seen the capabilities of my anger too. And the only thing I had succeeded in doing, once again, was making things worse.

I could have handled the whole situation better. I could have gotten to the bottom of things discreetly later, quietly. Instead, I did something I've NEVER done, not once before, EVER, in my life towards another human being.

I had threatened a man's life, roughly manhandled him, and then came within a hair's breadth of ending his life.

And worse, I had begun to enjoy it.

THAT'S what was REALLY bothering me.

I can't imagine what goes through the mind of a policeman or a combat vet when he sees injustice and tragedy unfold before him and he is powerless to do anything about it. The situation of being helpless in the presence of injustice is no stranger to any of us in whatever Service we are, but while our fields are related, our worlds are still very much a part in many ways.

For me as a firefighter/paramedic for 26 years of my life, I had to put away the anger and grief I felt at some of the cruel things I witnessed, and help the victim involved and restrain myself from saying or doing anything no matter what the situation. It's harder than you know to try to keep your composure when you're putting a sling on the broken arm of a young child whose father has just broken it in a fit of rage, and is yelling while the police are arresting him and the child is screaming in pain for his daddy not to be taken away. Or for the woman covered in bruises apologizing to us for being a bother when her husband is standing right over you saying there is nothing is wrong with her, while he tells everyone what a klutz she is and an embarrassment to him.

Or responding to a call for the elderly gentleman and his wife covered in bed sores and sick with a high fever, living in a dirty shed in the backyard while their children live in the main house and refuse to allow their parents to be taken to the hospital for medical care.

I could go on and on about the horrors people are fully capable of doing to others weaker than themselves. But that would truly be pointless. There's just too much to describe, and I'm not the only one who has seen it.

But the way I reacted to it today, truly frightened me. For 26 years I had trained myself and trained others to be reserved, in control, and focus on being able to deal with tragedy and treat victims with kindness, compassion, and caring, and not react in anger or grief at the horrors we saw.

Well, at least for the most part. I had my bad days like everyone else.

And even then, somehow, I still managed to treat the victims and their tormentors the same way, with the same compassion as I always did with everyone's call for help that I ever responded to, for more than 26 years.

And then today, I almost killed a man.

And if not for the desperate pleas of a young girl, I might just very well have pulled that trigger. In fact, I'm very sure of it.

The shock and horror of what I had almost done came rushing back to me, and the impact on my conscience was like a knife being twisted in my gut.

"How could I have been so stupid?" I thought, shaking my head. " What the hell was I even THINKING when I did that?"

I sunk back in my seat, closed my eyes and sighed.

At the moment, I didn't know what else to do.

* * *

Saeko looked at the man sitting in the front seat of the bus and felt saddened at the sight of the troubled man sitting there. Her heart was conflicted towards him, both with worry and with concern. In a short span of time, she had seen him change from a man filled with warmth and compassion for those around him, and then just as quickly she saw the most terrifying rage overcome the man's gentle face and had nearly watched him end the life of one of their teachers that the American believed had assaulted a young student back at the school and had left him to die.

What was also disturbing was that Rei was also screaming for the teacher's blood as well, which caused a huge uproar in the bus between the students that had arrived with Shido-sensei, and Saeko's friends that were already aboard, making it even more difficult for Saeko to try to calm the explosive situation down.

When the man finally threatened to shoot the teacher and was getting ready to do so, Saeko had been desperate to stop him, and it appeared that her efforts to stop him from committing cold-blooded murder were going to be in vain.

Out of sheer desperation, for reasons even she did not even comprehend, she had appealed to him with an outpouring of her heart, calling him "uncle" in a last desperate attempt to reach the man through his fury. And to her amazement, the man had been miraculously stopped by her words, and although he had still treated the teacher rather roughly afterwards and all but threw him onboard the bus, the man's fury had been defused, and they were now traveling outside the gates of the school, on their way towards the city.

Saeko sighed and then pulled an oiled rag from one of the pockets in her skirt, and began to wipe down the length of her bokken with it. It was a two-fold ritual, one of maintenance of her treasured weapon and one that she performed whenever her mind was stressed and she wished to relieve the clouded thoughts of her mind.

As she rubbed the fine wood, she allowed herself to relax. And as her troubled thoughts drifted away, her senses were once again finely tuned to her surroundings and as she let her senses drift, her ears picked up the conversation between the teacher and the students seated in the back with him, and a frown formed on her brow at the things she was hearing.

The voices stopped suddenly, and Saeko became aware of the teacher's presence standing almost beside her, which for some reason, immediately put her on edge, and the voice of the last person she wished to talk to in the world, least of all right now, spoke into her ear. And the sound of that voice sent a very familiar shiver up her spine.

"Neh, Busujima-san, your friend is a very,…unique and interesting character isn't he? WHO is he, might I ask" She heard the voice of Shido inquire of her from behind her seat.

"He is not a friend, and we know nothing about him." Saeko answered, calmly continued to polish her bokken. Her body however, was extremely tensed at his presence. It was a feeling she had felt before, and it haunted her still. And now in the presence of this man, all of her senses screamed for her to be cautious.

"He wandered into the school and helped us to escape. He has revealed nothing about himself to us at all." Saeko answered. "Other than being a foreigner, and obviously being well armed, we have no idea who he is."

"Ohhhh." The teacher said his voice velvety soft. "So he is NOT the leader of your group then?"

"No. He is MOST certainly not." Saeko said wishing the teacher would return to his seat.

"You were able to prevent him from committing a most serious crime with your bravery Busujima-san. I am deeply grateful for your intervention. The teacher continued. " If not for you, who knows what that,…man may have done." Shido said in his syrupy voice.

"I did nothing more than ask him to stop what he was doing." Saeko said, her pulse starting to rise.

"Perhaps, but you spoke out bravely for him to stop although he could have EASILY vented his rage on you, and even threatened your life as well for trying to save mine, Busujima-san. Your courageous actions were those of a true leader, and most commendable."

Saeko smiled and nodded politely at the teachers compliment. In truth, she felt nauseated listening to the man speak.

"You are not perhaps then the true leader of this group then Busujima-san? Shido asked, his question causing every alarm in Saeko's mind to ring.

"There is no one like that here at all." Saeko said, keeping her composure. "We merely work together to survive."

"That is not good." Shido said, his voice taking on a distinctly different tone now. "We definitely need a leader here. A leader who bears everything. And protects everyone from,….ALL dangers.

Rei and Takashi had been listening to the exchange between Saeko and the teacher. But it was Rei's words that frightened Takashi at that moment.

"You'll regret this." She said, a mask of anger on her face. "You are going to regret ever helping him." She whispered angrily.

"And HE is going to regret that he didn't just shoot him." Rei thought to herself as she stared at the American sitting next to Shizuka.

"Machi ga!" (The city!)" One of the students yelled in the back seat, as everyone turned their heads to stare in horror at the unimaginable scene before them.

* * *

It was the first time the kids had seen the city since they had gone to school this morning I guess. I'm pretty sure they were overwhelmed by the horror of the devastation they were seeing, and all that they knew collapsing upon itself as the Contagion spread across the city that they had known all their young lives. I had already been in the thick of it this morning and I had a better idea of the horrors that we were going to face, and I knew it had gotten even WORSE since then. So unfortunately, I knew these kids were in for an even greater shock once we got in the midst of all that.

I knew of no words of comfort that I could say, although I wanted to. In the face of all this calamity, there were no words, or inspiring speeches that I could come up with at the time. And a hug sure wasn't going to cut it either.

I was a stranger in a strange land, with a bus load full of young teens, a very sweet-hearted woman who didn't let ANYTHING bother her that I could see, and a cold-blooded coward who I firmly believed had just murdered a boy. I was a little overwhelmed myself at the time to be honest, so I said nothing till I figured that I had something worth saying later. At the moment, I was trying to figure out what our next move would be.

We were a small, untrained, barely armed, band of refugees looking for safety. And we had an entire city to cross with most of them Infected and trying to kill us. And the rest of those not Infected, would probably try to harm or kill us just because of blind panic, or temporary insanity from the horror going on around them. Believe me, being in the middle of a panicked crowd is the LAST place you want to be in trust me. People will trample you into a paste just like cattle in a stampede, and nothing will stop them.

To be honest, when we finally drove off the hill, I was more than a little surprised to see the streets as empty as they were. Actually, make that EXTREMELY surprised. It seemed like the entire city, in less than a few hours, was now completely dead. It felt like walking into one of those video games, like "Silent Hill," where all the citizens have mysteriously disappeared and the town itself stands as silent as a tomb, waiting for you to come and then snatch you away screaming into the darkness to vanish like the rest. It was eerie, to say the least.

"I guess everyone's either fled to the other side of the city, or possibly locked themselves in their homes." I said aloud. There was no reply from anyone at my words.

Hoo boy, I must have really had them all on edge.

* * *

Shizuka had slowed down the bus a bit as we drove through this section of the town, just in case we came across another hapless refugee. And as we left the downtown area and switched to a road running along the shore, she sped up, probably wanting to get as far away from the ugly scene more so than the rest of us. I was looking ahead at the road in front of us and saw a huge sign to our left coming up around a bend.

I was DYING for a cup of coffee and something to eat as well, and now seemed like a good idea to pull over, let everyone take a pee break and stock up on supplies for the rest of our journey. The kids had started to get a little rowdy after we had driven through the town, and it seemed that a couple of the boys in the back were getting a little louder with each passing mile. So I figured a little break would probably be a good idea and help everyone quiet down as well, once they had something in their stomachs and emptied their bladders.

"Shizuka-san. Would you mind pulling over to that store on the left?" I asked her tiredly.

Yeah. A cup of coffee and a doughnut would sure hit the spot right now. IF they even HAD such things inside that store. My luck so far, green tea and soy buns might be the only thing waiting for me in there.

Heck, even THAT sounded good right about now.

"Shizuka-san?" I said looking at her as it seemed that she had actually accelerated instead of slowing down. I looked at her face and then hesitated a moment.

The look on the woman's face was something I had not seen since I had first met her. The warm, sweet, bubbly personality was gone from her face and was replaced by the look of a woman HIGHLY annoyed about something, probably because of the arguing teens in the bus, whose voices were already starting to get on my nerves as well, I admit.

"Shizuka?" I repeated.

Still, whether she was annoyed or not, we needed a break and we NEEDED supplies for our journey, and so I was about to say her name a little louder and try to break her out of her haze when she suddenly slammed on the accelerator. I was pushed back in my chair from the sudden surge in speed and as I looked out the windshield, I got a brief view of some Infected guy that had been shuffling across the street wearing a straw hat, probably some local fisherman or whatever, and then there was a loud thud as the bus hit him head on, and he disappeared underneath our wheels without Shizuka ever slowing down.

" Oh shit,… never mind." I said out loud.

"Note to self." I thought. "DO NOT piss off this woman."

Guess a potty break, coffee and snacks would have to wait a while.

As I had said earlier, to my regret, I've never married. I've always wanted to find a loving wife and have a family of my own, but sometimes life is harsh, and the things we want in life, just do not work out. In some ways, though, it is a mixed blessing. And one of those mixed blessings, is not having to be living with a woman who is extremely pissed off, and ready to explode as soon as you open your mouth.

Even though relationships for me have been few and far between, I HAVE been on the receiving end of a woman's wrath before, and if there's anything I've learned, is that I know better than to open my mouth and say something stupid while her anger was brewing, especially if her anger is directed at YOU.

The boys in the back though, were about to learn the hard way, and of course, the rest of us had to suffer as well, seeing as how we were all traveling together.

At least I was buckled in though.

The bus came to a sudden screeching stop as Shizuka slammed on the brake and everyone was lurched forward from their seats to smack the seat in front of them. There was a lot of "ow's" coming from the back once we had finally screeched to a halt.

"Gaaaaa!" I gasped ,as I was nearly strangled by the seat belt when it automatically tightened up the slack in response to Shizuka's sudden braking of the bus.

Shizuka got up from her seat and turning around, said some pretty angry words to the kids telling them to shut up I guess, which caused them to settle down for a moment, with the exception of one teen who was bigger than all the rest, and apparently, didn't like anyone telling him what to do.

Rather than argue with Shizuka though, which the kid did show a little good sense there, he decided to focus his rage on Takashi for some reason, who was just as stunned and dazed from slamming against the seats as the rest of us.

The kid was saying some pretty ugly things from the sound of it, and I have to say, I was pretty proud of Takashi for keeping his cool. Most teenage boys where I'm from would already be talking smack or pulling out a handgun and spraying down the bus, and NO, I'm not kidding.

Takashi just stood up and calmly asked the boy what was his problem, from what little Japanese I could understand.

Problem is with bullies, especially ones who are humiliated by their own stupidity, there's just no reasoning with them no matter how hard you try.

Sometimes it takes a neutral party or mature adult to step in and break up a teenage hissy fit, so I unbuckled myself from my seat and started walking over to separate the two boys.

Of course, the other teen was in no mood to wait for me to peacefully break up their little spat without trying to vent his frustrations on Takashi while everyone was watching, and he swung his fist trying to land a blow, just to boost his ego I guess.

Before I could step in to stop him, Rei had decided to intervene herself and handle the matter for me.

Sometimes the best way to get through to a man who doesn't have the good sense to behave himself is the stern look and calm words of a mature woman to set him straight.

And if that doesn't work, then the raging fury and vicious strength of a really pissed off woman will do just as well. Sometimes, even better.

Never underestimate the power of an angry woman protecting what's hers guys, I'm telling you.

The most vicious thing in nature is a mother protecting her cubs. The next most vicious force in nature would be a woman fighting with someone over the man she has claimed as HER property.

With a quick sweep of her make-shift yari, Rei landed a vicious strike to the boy's mid-section, hitting him so hard he doubled over and vomited from the impact. Rei then added insult to his injury and finished him off with a sweep of his legs and he landed heavily on the floor, where he lay, gasping and choking in his own puke.

"Yup, there's a real winner there." I said looking at the gasping teen. "Guess I better do something before it gets any worse."

Before I could though, it seems the teacher who couldn't speak so well a while ago ( well, THIS time I wasn't sticking a gun in his face, truth be told) decided to open up and handle the situation himself.

And BOY, was he grandstanding too.

Everyone onboard the bus stared in shock after watching the teenage boy being beaten to the floor by the much smaller girl. Suddenly, the sound of hands clapping sounded throughout the bus as everyone looked up to see the teacher Shido walking up between the aisle and then stopped over the fallen boy to speak.

"Well done. Great teamwork from the both of you, Komuro-kun and Miyamoto-san." Shido said smiling as he stood over the still, gasping boy on the floor. "Both of you certainly handled that situation well."

"Still, this little display proves my point exactly. We need a strong leader to prevent this sort of thing. We really do." Shido said.

"And I guess we only have one nominee?" Saya asked, the sarcasm thick in her voice.

Not to be deterred, Shido leaned down next to her seat, to which she, repulsed by his presence so close to her, looked away from him as he spoke.

"I'm a teacher, Takagi-san, and all of you are students."Shido responded smiling wickedly. "And HE," Shido said, indicating the American, is a foreigner and I imagine, not familiar with our ways."

Shido then stood up to full height, and then turned around to face everyone seated in the back of the bus, and opened his arms in a grand gesture. "That alone makes it very clear who is more qualified." He continued. " And as your leader, I can make sure we don't run into any problems. OR, that any of you are harmed by anything,…or anyone," Shido stressed.

"Just like earlier when you were crying like a little girl when you had a gun in your face, and thought you were going to die." Saya thought with disgust.

* * *

"I'm not sure what this windbag was saying. But it sure looked like he had most of the kids eating out of his hands, from the look of things." I thought, watching the guy take a grandiose bow in front of everyone as they all clapped and smiled in approval at whatever garbage he had been sputtering.

His speech must have been pretty good, because now all the kids in the back of the bus were looking at him with all the love in the world.

Geez, that was quick.

"Must have majored in politics or theater." I said disgustedly. "Great, now I got to deal with a murderer AND a self-proclaimed savior too."

Guess none of those kids had heard our little exchange about their new savior killing one of their schoolmates to save himself. That or they just didn't care, so long as this guy kept sweet-talking them with whatever it was they wanted to hear.

People are funny like that, especially when they're afraid and whenever someone offers them some sort of solution no matter how far-fetched. If you tickle their ears enough with whatever they want to hear, eventually they'll do whatever you ask, even murder.

Guess I was gonna have to start sleeping with one eye open at all times watching every one of them now.

"Gotta give this little weenie credit," I thought to myself. "Stir the kids up and have them eating out of his hand, and soon I'll be powerless to do anything about whatever crap he tries, given enough time."

(Well, it wasn't like I was gonna turn my carbine on children for crying out loud.)

"Shoulda just shot the little prick." I grumbled as I stood there looking at the show. I didn't realize at the time just how much my own words would come back to haunt me later.

For some reason, little Rei-chan was a wee bit more pissed off about the whole affair than I was, apparently. After the jester here had taken his bow, Rei in the blink of an eye, turned on her heel, rushed to the front passenger door, threw it open, and jumped out into the street.

Takashi was horrified at her bounding off like that, and he yelled after her, "REI!"

About then, Mr. Slick said something at seeing her go, which pissed off Takashi something fierce and then HE bounced right after her.

"Oh yeah, THIS just keeps getting better and better." I said disgusted.

"Watch my stuff, Shizuka-san wouldya please?" I asked the school nurse as I went out the side door of the bus. No way did I want that geek near my stuff, especially near my M24 rifle.

"Of course." She said, frowning at Shido.

"When I get back, I'm gonna kick your ass, you little shit." I said, pointing at the male teacher as I stepped off the bus, and walked over to Rei and Takashi arguing amongst themselves.

I did a quick scan of the area and seeing no danger, I walked up to the kids who stopped talking as soon as I stepped in front of them.

"I don't know what that little prick said to piss you off hon. " I said to Rei." But you should know better than to jump out of the bus and run out here where it's unsafe."

"Oh, man." I thought. "I'm starting to sound like my parents."

Rei was still pretty pissed off, and I don't know if my words hadn't reached her, or she was just too pissed to care what I had said, because she didn't reply to me and just kept yelling at Takashi.

She didn't get to say too much though, because at that time the sound of a very LOUD horn and a very loud diesel motor revving at high speed coming straight at us, kinda took our attention away from our present topic of conversation, and started a whole new change of venue.

"MOVE!" I yelled as a commuter bus came barreling down at us full speed with blood splashed across all the windows. If there was anyone alive on that bus, there was no way they could know we were in their path.

People say that time seems to sort of halt when you experience a traumatic event and everything slows down and moves in slow motion and so forth. Well, truth is, time does no such thing. The real reason for that is the shock of the event being recorded in your brain which causes the illusion of slowing down due to the brain being so overloaded with signals, that it takes a bit longer to respond while it struggles to catch up and make the body start to physically move in response to the danger.

Some of us react to it better than others I suppose, because while I ran a few steps and hurled my old butt to the ground on the right, I heard Saeko yell something to Shizuka who did nothing apparently, as the mini-bus stayed rock still, while the bigger commuter bus streaked towards us like an Exocet missile. Not that there was much time for her to react anyway.

As I painfully slammed my hip onto the pavement, the bus impacted with another parked vehicle and then turned over in a lazy arc, slamming into the tunnel that the kids and I had been standing at nearby.

I got up quickly from the ground and winced at the pain coming from my hip, ( NO, it's NOT broken, THANK YOU very much) and turned in horror to see the bus in flames behind me and the two teens nowhere in sight.

My heart sank at the thought that the two kids had been crushed to death by the wrecked bus. I was already screaming inside my head that I should have grabbed them and pushed them out of the way, instead of running and diving for cover, when Saeko jumped out of the bus near me and yelled "KOMURO!"

I was going to grab her to keep her from going near the bus when I heard the sound of Takashi's voice coming from BEHIND the bus, and INSIDE the tunnel.

"Aww, crap!" I said, seeing Takashi and Rei's face peeking from a small space between the tunnel and the burning bus. "How are we gonna get them out of there?" I wondered aloud.

"Komuro!" Saeko yelled, seeing Takashi. She ran up to the bus and there was a brief exchange of words between the two, and I guess they agreed on something, because Takashi and Rei started running down through the tunnel, and then Saeko backed up, as we started having problems of our own as Infected people from inside the bus started walking OUTSIDE the bus headed towards me and Saeko, completely engulfed in flame.

Saeko, true to her samurai heritage, was preparing for combat with the crispy critters and went into a "Chudan no Kamae" stance , but then the bodies became overcome by the flames and started to drop to the ground.

"Come on, hon." I said, grabbing her arm. "Let's drive around on the other side and pick them up."

"No!' Saeko said, as she looked up at me." Komuro-san said to meet him at East Precinct Police Station. Please, come!" She said running into the bus.

I took one last look at the burning bus behind us and then climbed in, shutting the door behind me.

* * *

Saeko had said something to Shizuka, and she then put the bus in gear again, and we started heading down the road as the bus suddenly exploded behind us. I sat down in the front passenger seat as we turned a corner, headed for another region of the city. I was beside myself at what had just happened. It was the exact scenario that I had hoped WOULDN'T happen.

Two of my kids were now separated from the rest of us, lost, unarmed, and helpless in a city full of bloodthirsty monsters. And there was NOTHING I could do about it, but hope and pray they would keep safe and be there to meet us at this East Precinct Police Station, wherever it was. I can't begin to tell you how helpless I felt at not being able to go back and help those kids.

I looked up from the road ahead and in the reflection of the visor mirror, I saw the male teacher sitting quietly in his seat, an indifferent look on his face and I ground my teeth as I met his eye in the reflection.

I was so angry at the little prick right now, I wanted to kick the dashboard in frustration. I wanted to curse him out till my throat was raw from yelling. I wanted to pull my SCUBA/DEMO knife out of its sheath that was strapped to my right calf and begin making a big show of sharpening it with a sharpening steel as we drove down the street. I wanted to do all that, and anything else I could think of just to make him squirm and have him be as miserable as I was right now. There would be no mistaking about the meaning why I was doing any of that either, everyone on board the bus would know why.

But I did none of those things.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't, because I had already let my emotions get the best of me already once today. And because of that, when I had given into the rage that I had felt at seeing a young boy murdered by a coward just a short time ago, I had nearly lost control and had almost become a murderer myself. I may be a rookie mercenary, but I was no kid straight out of high school or fresh out of the Fire Academy either. I was a 26 year veteran of Fire/EMS, and I needed to start acting like it.

I was still pissed off at the sawed-off runt though.

"Something happens to those kids, and you'll be the NEXT one that disappears on this bus pal, I PROMISE you." I said under my breath as I whacked the visor with my hand flipping it up so I couldn't see his face any longer.

It took a few moments for me to calm down as we raced down the narrow streets. After a while, I finally reached for the waterproof map case that hung from my belt. It was a waterproof fabric and plastic envelope made by a company called Maxpedition, that some people in the military use in the field to keep their maps safe and handy when on the move.

I unfolded the map case and looked at my copy of Tokonosu City that had all the kid's houses marked on it, and studied it for a few moments before I gave up and I then looked over at Shizuka.

What can I say? I'm a guy, and as all women in the world know, we guys HATE asking for directions.

"Shizuka-san?" I asked pulling the map out of the case along with a small pencil that I also kept in it.

"Hai?" She replied looking over at me as she drove. We could start to see some moving vehicles and crowds of people in the distance finally, and she had slowed down a bit to avoid hitting any possible refugees that were starting to dart in and out from between the long alleyways.

"Where is this East Police station? I heard Saeko mention it outside."

"Ah! It's right here." she said, slowing the bus down to a crawl to point the location on the map for me.

"Thanks Shizuka-san." I said smiling at her, trying to appear as friendly and as non-threatening as I could. Talk about damage control. If I kept popping off the way I did earlier, I wouldn't have any friends left, and I might find myself under the wheels of this bus just like that fisherman a while ago. Glad she was still friendly towards me at least.

"You're welcome." She said cheerfully.

Shizuka was indeed a very cheerful person, and one might think her a bit of a ditz at their first impression of her, and I had thought the same as well I admit. But first impressions aren't everything, and I hoped that as we all traveled together, we'd all get to know each other better and more importantly, TRUST one another, because the road ahead, had just gotten a lot more difficult than we had expected when we first made our plans to escape from that school office just a few hours ago.

Now, we had another group of kids on board with us under the leadership of a psycho murderer, and two young people that had escaped with us were somewhere lost in the city, fighting for their lives if they weren't dead already.

I sighed at the day's developments and stared at the map trying to figure out what to do next. The East Precinct police station was way past the area were the kids lived, and was the halfway point between the last house marked on the map, and the middle school were Takashi's mom worked. It wasn't all that far away actually, but the big problem besides the wacko in the rear seat that I'd have to watch till we found a great place to dump him and his entourage, was the fact that everything was on the OTHER side of one of the big rivers that split the city in sections. Trying to cross a bridge with a sea of people trying to cross it all at once was going to be next to impossible, and then there was also the fact that we were going to have to try to navigate between a city full of panicked civilians fleeing for their lives, and a horde of Infected chasing them every step of the way.

And then last but not least, there would be the military and civil authorities who even in the middle of this crisis, would just love to toss my butt in the nearest cell if they didn't just shoot me on sight.

The journey ahead was going to be a rough one, to put it mildly.

As Shizuka finally reached the flow of humanity headed away from the deadly horde hunting them down, and did her best to negotiate around the mass of humanity and merge with the flow of vehicles, I paused to look out at the hundreds of frightened men, women, and children. And as I looked at them, I wondered just how many of those faces I was looking at would be alive to tell of this horror tomorrow, and how many would be chasing us moaning with outstretched arms and gaping mouths.

The day had certainly been a long one, and the fatigue from my being up since that first attack at the airport, my running all over the city trying to evade capture by the police and the Infected, and then everything else since then was starting to catch up to me a LOT around midnight after we had been sitting in traffic for about six hours and had only moved maybe a mile.

Regardless of how tired I was, there was no way I wanted to fall asleep with that psycho in the back just waiting for me to pass out so he could finally have his revenge. I didn't doubt for one second that the guy wouldn't take advantage of the situation the moment I let my guard down. And to be safe, even though I couldn't stand the sight of the guy, I had lowered the visor mirror down again just so I could make sure no one would be sneaking up behind me.

Still, despite what precautions you take, when the body is tired enough, it will shut itself down no matter how hard you try to keep awake.

You can train yourself to postpone sleep for a while by moving around, drinking gallons of coffee or energy drinks and take mouthfuls of stimulants and whatever, but eventually, your body will shut down and that's that. I've had lots of years of practice with sleep deprivation on the job, although not by choice, and I can do without sleep for a while depending on the situation.

The last time I stayed up the longest was almost forty-eight hours straight, back when I was still a firefighter, and the longest I've ever gone without sleep was a 96 hour shift with about a couple hours nap in there somewhere, so it really wasn't 96 hours straight with no sleep.

But man, it was the longest shift I ever worked and by the end of it, I was in la-la land. That was back in 1987 when I was eighteen and new to the job. I wasn't too sure I could pull that off again and by about 2:00 AM, my body agreed with that assessment and I konked right out. Although to be honest, it wasn't just the killer zombies, and all the running and shooting and fighting that did me in.

Ironically, it was because no matter how hard I tried, I could only only take so much of Shizuka's conversation about the cute things her cat did the other day before my brain said," Ok, I'm out of here." and my body just shut down on its own.

* * *

Shizuka looked over at the American dozing in the seat next to her and smiled. The man had tried to converse with her as they waited in traffic, talking in low voices so as not to disturb everyone in the back who had all already fallen asleep.

The American had done little in the way of talking himself, and had been mostly listening to her as Shizuka had freely discussed her likes, dislikes, hobbies, her family, her friends especially Rika, and other points of interest that Shizuka thought the American would enjoy hearing.

Oh, and the cute things her cat would always do when she got home from work. Eventually however, Shizuka had noticed that the man had stopped shaking his head in agreement as she was talking and then eventually, she heard the tell-tale sound of the man's breathing rising and falling as he slept.

"Poor dear." Shizuka thought. "He's trying so hard to do everything to help us. I hope he'll be all right with a little sleep." She thought as she yawned loudly herself and stretched. The night was going to be a long one indeed.

Shido awoke from his troubled sleep and casually glanced at the American sitting in the front of the bus. The sight of the American sound asleep in the reflection of the mirror on the visor instantly awakened all of Shido's senses and he bolted up right in his seat, and watched the man more intensely, to see if the foreigner had truly had made the fatal error of falling asleep. As Shido watched for a few minutes, he was overjoyed to see that indeed, the big man had indeed fallen fast asleep, and that the opportunity to be able to take his revenge on the man who had humiliated him so, was now set before him.

Remarkably, the opportunity to exact revenge had arrived much more quickly and would be SO much easier than Shido had thought it possible. He glanced over by the side door and cast his eyes towards the man's pack with the butt of a rifle protruding from it. It was SO close, and taking it would be SO easy now. The man was undoubtedly exhausted from the day's events and it would be possible to reach for the rifle in the man's pack and use it to kill him with, before he was even aware he was in danger.

Shido was beside himself with glee at the image forming in his mind of the gaijin staring up at him in horror, as the last thing the man would see would be Shido's smiling face as he pulled the trigger while everyone in the bus that the American had been so worried about protecting, would be gathered around Shido, the man they had chosen as their REAL protector, their REAL savior.

"It would be such a beautiful sight." Shido thought. The ULTIMATE betrayal.

Shido reveled in the seemingly endless scenarios that filled his mind, each one more enticing than the next.

"Perhaps," Shido thought, "Perhaps I could even keep him alive for a while and let him know what it means to be afraid of ME."

" I could also hand him over to the authorities, and everyone would know that it was I, who had saved all these helpless children from a deadly foreigner. Then they would ALL hail me as a HERO."

As Shido reveled in his gleeful thoughts of capturing and further humiliating the sleeping man, the desire to carry out his plan proved too much a temptation to pass up.

And so quietly, so as not to stir the sleeping teens around him from their slumber, Shido arose from his seat, preparing to stealthily make his way to the front of the bus and quietly seize the man's rifle.

He watched the sleeping man as he crouched in the aisle of the bus, and not seeing any reaction from the man, he took a couple of steps gingerly forward. There was still no sign of his movements having aroused the man at all, and feeling brave, Shido prepared to move towards the rifle.

It was SO close now, just barely over two meters away.

Revenge would be all his in a matter of three quick moves,…..

A sudden "WHOOSH" of something cutting the air in front of him reached Shido's ears and the shape of Saeko's bokken appeared directly in front of him, blocking his path. The move had been so sudden, so unexpected, that Shido had nearly cried out in terror at the sight. As it was, a loud gasp had escaped his lips anyway.

The wooden sword was mere inches from his face and stayed suspended there in mid-air, un-moving. Nearly frightened out of his wits, he looked over at the wielder of the bokken and was startled to see the young teenage girl wielding it, wide awake and staring right at him.

"Don't." Saeko said, her voice cold, without emotion.

Shido gazed upon her face and a cold chill ran up his spine as he looked into her eyes. There was no sign of any visible emotion on her face like the other teens, and her eyes,…

Her eyes were what scared Shido the most. Her eyes, like her voice, were cold, emotionless.

The eyes of a killer.

"B-B-Busujima-san, what are you doing?" Shido said, his voice quavering a bit. The girl's actions had startled him well enough, but the way she looked at him now, was unnerving.

"Do NOT attempt to disarm him Shido-sensei." The young girl said, her face still an emotionless mask. "If you insist on trying to do so, you will not survive this night."

The young girl's threat enraged Shido beyond belief. This young girl was actually PROTECTING the barbarian?

All his plans of revenge had hinged upon the students turning against the gaijin. Now it seems, the man had allies amongst the students after all. The betrayal had been reversed, and now it was HE who was betrayed, and not the man who had humiliated him. The hate in Shido's heart threatened to boil over as he, barely keeping control, replied to the young woman's threat.

"So. The man IS your leader after all neh, Busujima-san? " Shido asked gritting his teeth. "Seeing as how you are protecting him, I assume your loyalties indeed lie with him then, do they not?" Shido asked, the fury in his voice barely under control.

"As I said before, the man is most certainly NOT our leader, sensei." The young teen said as the cold, emotionless look on her face suddenly melted into a shy smile, and her eyes warmed. "However, the man IS a trained killer, and he has already threatened your life once. I am only a student, and if I could feel your presence near me, then a man in his profession would surely know a person whom he sees as an enemy was nearby and kill you without hesitation."

"Please Shido-sensei, do not go near him." Saeko said, her eyes pleading. "You are the only teacher left, and we have no one else to turn to."

Shido was stunned at her words, and was greatly relieved as well. So his plans had not failed after all. This girl had merely stopped him only because she feared for HIS life, and not from any loyalty to the foreigner.

" This is just too perfect." Shido thought to himself. "This young girl with her skills would prove to be a most useful asset against the American. I must be careful however."

"Your quite right, my dear. My sincerest apologies for my hasty words. I was afraid the gaijin had perhaps deceived you as well into thinking he was a friend, and not the criminal he REALLY is." Shido said, quickly regaining his composure.

"There is nothing to apologize for sensei." Saeko said, bowing her head. "Please forgive me for startling you. I saw no other way to stop you without waking the big oaf."

"No, it is I who owes you my apologies and my thanks Busujima-san." Shido said, his voice dripping with false concern." If not for your brave act, I might very well have been killed by that brute." Shido said, looking at the sleeping man, his eyes filled with hate.

"Please, go back to sleep, my child." Shido said looking away from the American and gazing into Saeko's face, smiling pleasantly. "Judgment for criminals like him will come soon enough. We will just have to wait for a better opportunity to protect ourselves from this beast."

"Hai, sensei." Saeko said, bowing her head and laying her bokken on her lap.

Shido returned the bow, and quietly returned to his seat. Fortunately, the sleeping man had not been disturbed by the exchange between Shido and the student, and it would seem, Shido thought, that fate indeed was on his side. He clasped his hands, and stared at the American as the first dull glow of the morning sun began to appear in the sky.

"Your time is coming sooner than you think my friend." Shido said, licking his lips." Your friends have ALL turned on you, and when your blood is pouring on the ground, it will be me standing amongst them, and laughing."

Saeko closed her eyes and smiled after the teacher had returned to his seat.

It was all she could do to prevent herself from striking him down with her bokken when he had attempted to grab the American's rifle and take him prisoner.

She had sensed the teacher would attempt something soon, yet she had not anticipated that the teacher would have tried such a bold attempt so quickly.

"He is desperate to exact his revenge no matter what." Saeko thought." He is more dangerous than I imagined, which means NONE of us are safe as long as he remains among us."

Saeko had not witnessed the American's claims that Shido had attacked the boy and left him for dead. The only thing that had made her believe the foreigner's outrageous claims were her instincts screaming at her that the schoolteacher was not only hiding something, but also planning something murderous against the man who had proven that he was only trying to help Saeko and her friends since they had first met him.

Saeko, like everyone else, had been disturbed by the American's fury at the teacher, and especially after the American had come so close to almost murdering him.

However, the man's demeanor up until that point had been one of kindness and warmth, and the fury had only showed itself when a boy's life had been snuffed allegedly by the teacher's hand, and also when the American had thought that their lives were in danger from the teacher as well.

Up until that moment, the foreigner had been acting more like a father trying to protect, and if necessary at times, discipline his children to keep them safe from harm. But he had most certainly NOT tried to lord over them and definitely did NOT try to threaten them in any way. The man was not unlike her father in that respect, although he was certainly more laid back, acting more like one of her uncles than her father. Perhaps that was why calling him "uncle" earlier had slipped from her lips when she had tried to reach the heart of the kind man lost beneath the rage.

Saeko looked over at the sleeping man and smiled.

"Ojisan, hmmm?" She thought as she closed her eyes and stood guard as the man slept.

* * *

I awoke with a start, to find the first glowing rays of the sun starting to blot out the stars in the sky. Horrified that I had fallen asleep, I quickly checked to make sure I was still armed and then I quickly checked the visor mirror to make sure that the slime ball hadn't tried to sneak up on me while I had slept.

I blew a breath of relief that my weapons were still safe in my hands, and that the teacher was sitting quietly in his seat in the back, still snoozing.

"Geez, I'm an idiot." I said cursing myself for my stupidity. I had made a SERIOUS tactical error by falling asleep while an enemy just waiting to slit my throat at any given moment, sat not more than a dozen feet away. It was an error that would have gotten ME killed, my FRIENDS killed, and if I had been in the military or back with the rest of the guys on GREEN team, I would have been kicked out in disgrace if I had survived their wrath at all.

"Some mercenary I am." I said shaking my head,

"Ohayo Gozaimasu." The silver bell sounding voice of Shizuka said in a friendly greeting. "Did you sleep well?" she asked smiling.

"Jim, you really ARE an idiot." I thought as I looked over at her, my face beet red with embarrassment.

"Um, yes, thank you." I stammered, blinking my eyes and trying to apologize for my goof. "I'm so sorry, about that, I didn't mean to fall asleep while you were speaking."

"Oh that's all right." Shizuka said,her smile unchanged. "Rika-chan does that all the time when I'm talking to her. I guess she works too hard too."

Man, this woman doesn't let a whole lot bother her does she? Still feeling like an idiot, and wishing to redeem myself, I asked her if she wished me to take over driving for a while so she could nap.

"Oh, thank you!" She said quite grateful for the break, and as we switched seats, Shizuka reclined the back of the chair down and settled down for her nap as I took off my combat vest, and hid both it and my carbine away from the view of the huge crowds of human traffic walking on both sides of the road.

No need to have some local cop or frightened civilian freak out seeing me with all that hardware while I was busy driving a school bus full of children around town.

The people on foot were doing better than we were, which was no real surprise there. Still, I was crestfallen to see that we had maybe traveled only a half mile since the time I had knocked out. At this rate, our chances of linking up with Takashi and Rei at the appointed place and time were beginning to not look very good.

"I really hope those two are all right." I thought as I engaged the clutch and moved the bus forward about five more feet. I could hear the rest of the kids stirring in the back, especially Saya , who was already being grouchy and yelling at Kouta. I settled into the driver's seat and then focused on trying to drive a vehicle with the steering on the RIGHT side.

As Shizuka slept, I reflected on yesterday's events and then on what our next move should be.

While I was resolved to get the kids and Shizuka to safety, I owed absolutely NOTHING to that teacher in the back seat as far as I was concerned, except for a serious butt kicking, and I couldn't do that without looking like a psycho myself no matter how justified I felt in doing so. And if the kids that had come aboard with him wished to follow him, then I felt no regrets towards that either. If they wished to follow a madman, that was their choice.

And as if to help me reaffirm my resolve to drop them like a hot potato the first chance I got, their self-appointed leader was already up and inspiring them with a rousing early morning sermon, complete with dramatic posturing.

"Geez, at least allow the kids to fill their stomach's with food, before you fill their head full of crap." I thought to myself, as I had Saya break out the protein bars out of my pack and distribute them amongst everyone.

Yup, we had a regular cult leader with us, and I was really starting to believe walking outside with the Infected would be a more pleasant experience than having to listen to this jerk wax philosophical crapoli.

And by the afternoon hours of listening to this guy talk all day without let up, and progressing only ONE mile in bumper-to-bumper traffic with no air conditioning and NO FREAKIN' COFFEE, I was thinking it really WASN'T a bad idea for us all to abandon the bus and take our chances outdoors.

I was pretty fried, about now, let me tell you.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one either.

About this time, Shizuka had awakened from her nap and had switched back into the driver's seat, and as I returned to the passenger seat, I turned it almost completely around so I could view the back of the bus and keep my eye on my favorite windbag.

While all the teens in the back of the bus were still engrossed on his every word. Saya, Kouta and Saeko had left their seats and come up front to sit with me and Shizuka.

THEY had reached a decision of their own about our present situation as well.

* * *

'We're leaving." Saya said, bluntly.

"Come again pumpkin?" I replied, not quite believing what I had heard.

"Have you been listening to him at ALL today?" Saya asked me as if I was the dumbest person on earth.

"All he's been doing is talking about how everyone in the bus is the "new future" and he wants to help us build a "new world", and that we need to cut off all ties with our families and start anew."

"Naw." I said. "I've been pretty much ignoring that idiot since yesterday. If he's that much in love with himself, he can talk all he wants. So long as he leaves the rest of US alone."

"That's just it." Saya said sounding a little exasperated. "He's talking about turning on YOU,….baka."

The last part, Saya said under her breath. But nowadays, there aren't many Americans under the age of fifty who AREN'T familiar with the Japanese word for "idiot" now that anime and Japanese culture has become so mainstream. It was also one of the first words I ever learned back in my otaku days, I must admit.

"Takagi-san is right, Jimu-san." Saeko said looking at me with a very serious look on her face.

"We must leave, if we wish to meet up with Komuro-kun and Miyamoto-san at 7:00 at the rendezvous point. At this rate, we will never reach them in time, unless we go on foot."

"That may be sweetie." I said sighing. "But it's more dangerous out there than any of ya'll realize. And it's a HUGE risk."

"No more risky than staying here Jimu-san." Saeko said. "Shido-sensei means to kill you."

Well, THAT was NO surprise, but I was a little taken back to hear it anyway.

"He can try." I said smiling as I pulled my carbine from underneath the dashboard, and set it near me.

"But he'll get a little argument from me first before I go down." I chuckled.

"It is no joking matter Ojisan." Saeko said grabbing my arm and looking into my eyes. I was a little surprised to hear her call me that again. Calling a perfect stranger "Uncle" is no small thing in any country or culture. And even though I kept calling them "kids", these teens were not preschoolers', so she wasn't calling me that the way a tot would.

Teens don't give their trust to adults easily and without good reason. And while Saeko had called me "uncle" yesterday, I had believed that it was just purely out of desperation to stop me from killing that idiot. Now however, she seemed like she really cared for me as a real family member and was really worried about me getting hurt or killed.

"He tried to take your rifle from your pack last night." She said gripping my arm tighter. " And I truly believe that he wanted to kill you, more so than try to take you prisoner."

"OH CRAP." I thought in horror. I had thought that I had dodged a bullet purely by dumb luck or that maybe the guy just didn't have it in him to try something so daring. I had been WAY off.

Not only had he tried, he had almost succeeded too.

However, he had failed, and now I was beginning to understand the reason why he had failed. But I wanted to hear it for myself.

"So why didn't he?" I asked looking at Saeko in the eye.

"I-I…. stopped him." Saeko said looking down at the floor.

I was astonished at what had nearly happened because I had stupidly given an opening to a madman by falling asleep. And by all rights, I SHOULD be dead, if not for this young girl protecting me as I was at my most vulnerable.

Saeko had protected me last night, and everyone here was trying to protect me NOW. And all along I had assumed I was the one protecting THEM.

I was mortified at her words nonetheless. Last night I was a hair-breadth's away from nearly being taken prisoner or more likely, killed if not for the brave actions of this young girl. I had been so worried that because of the way I had acted yesterday, that perhaps their trust in me had been shattered. Instead, they were all risking their lives to protect me from an enemy determined to kill me and anyone who stood in his way.

I was moved beyond words to say the least, but now was not the time to get mushy. The kids were putting their faith in me to help them find their friends and get them home. And because of their trust in me, there was no way was I going to disappoint them.

I put my hand on her shoulder, and the words I said came straight from the heart.

"Saeko-chan, I can never thank you enough for what you have done for me." I said as she looked at me. "And if you don't stop being so nice to me, I'm going to steal you away from your dad and adopt you as my own."

Everyone laughed at my mushy words, even Saeko. But at that moment, I had meant those words more than any of them would ever know.

"All right then, pumpkin." I said looking at Saya. "What's your plan?"

* * *

Shido had been speaking for hours, and as his own words and the admiring stares of his loyal followers filled him with rapturous confidence, he had become so engrossed in his speech, that he had failed to notice, that NOT all of the young people in the bus were listening to his every word. Noticing that a few of his new flock were nowhere around, he glanced around the confines of the bus and to his dismay, the three remaining teens and the school nurse were engaged in a quiet conversation with the hated foreigner as they studied what looked like a map encased in a cloth-bound clear plastic envelope in his hands.

Shido was curious as to why they seemed to be more interested in what the gaijin was doing, instead of listening to his glorious plans for their bright future. Had they not also been frightened by the foreigner's actions yesterday? And Busujima-san? What was SHE doing over there with him? Had she not proven her loyalty to HIM last night? What was happening here?" Shido wondered stiffly.

The alarms in Shido's head began to shriek loudly as everyone began to gather their things, especially the American, who was putting on his combat vest and reaching for his rifle.

"WHAT, ARE THEY ALL DOING?!" Shido thought in horror." Are they LEAVING?!"

"Excuse me everyone?" Shido asked aloud, trying to keep his voice under control, as they all turned to face him. "What are you doing over there? Please, come, we have much to discuss."

"No thank you, Shido-sensei." Saya replied. "We have our own plans, and since we're not on a field trip, we don't have to answer to YOU. Goodbye." Saya said, waving.

Shido could barely contain his surprise or his fury at the sudden turn of events. THEY had all betrayed HIM after all, including that brat Busujima, Shido thought, as he stared at her with hate-filled eyes. She had fooled him completely, and now she looked at him with that same contemptible look as the American did.

"Both of you will suffer greatly before you die, I PROMISE YOU!" Shido screamed in his mind.

His voice however, betrayed none of the fury he felt, and he spoke as eloquently as before feigning surprise at their choice to leave.

"Oh?" He said calmly. "Well then, Takagi-san, Japan is a free country after all and all of you are free to do as you wish, so by all means if you wish to leave, I can't stop you,….however. He said evilly as he looked towards Shizuka and licked his lips.

"You however, Marikawa-sensei, CANNOT leave."

Shizuka gasped in surprise and fear at the teachers words, and while I didn't know what the jerk was saying, there was no doubt it wasn't pleasant from the way the guy was looking at Shizuka and from the way she reacted.

I'm guessing the man's own words had made him feel so untouchable, so bigger than life that he felt he could do anything and no harm would come to him, because he continued to talk in that same creepy voice of his and THEN started walking towards us.

I started to reach for my carbine and was seriously hoping this guy would do something stupid, because then I'd have good reason for what I'd be doing next.

Gotta hand it to Kouta though, the boy is pretty fast on the draw when he wants to be. John Wayne and Roy Rogers would have been proud.

There was a small familiar "pop", and a small, bloody scratch formed on the creep's face taking all the fire out of him as Kouta pointed his improvised nail gun/rifle at him.

Kouta had some pretty harsh words for the jerk, and I have to say, if I had been his papa, I'd have been proud of the way he stood up for Shizuka in the face of that jerk. The teacher couldn't back up fast enough, and just like that, the debate was over. We were leaving and nobody DARED stop us.

Kouta said something to Saeko, and she threw the door open and stepped outside smiling at him as she stepped out.

"Way to go kid." I thought. "Keep making points with the ladies like that and Saya's going to realize what a stud you really are."

Shizuka and Saya hopped out as well, and I waited for Kouta to head out before I turned tail myself.

Problem was, Kouta WASN'T moving. And as a few uncomfortable moments passed, I realized that he WASN'T going to move at all either, not until he finished what he had started. It was like looking at a mirror reflection of myself.

And now, I was really beginning to see things the way the kid's had seen me yesterday from their perspective, and I needed to do something quick, or this boy was going to make the same horrible mistake I had nearly made yesterday.

"Kouta, stop." I said trying to sound calm and not startle him so that he wouldn't accidentally pull the trigger. Kouta did not move, but his breathing started to get deeper.

"Kouta, don't do this son. He's not worth it buddy." I said still keeping my voice calm. Tears were starting to fall from Kouta's face now, more so from rage than anything. The boy was a heartbeat away from killing the teacher, and I now knew what Saeko must have felt yesterday after seeing me about to pull the trigger on this idiot. As evil as the teacher was, I didn't want this boy living the rest of his life with the guilt of having murdered the man, no matter how much I felt the world was better off without the psycho around.

Kouta was going to shoot, no doubt about it now, and I had only one chance to stop him and only one way I thought I could reach him, the same way that Saeko had reached me as my finger was squeezing the trigger. It was a hell of a gamble though,...

I raised my carbine to my shoulder and pointed it at the teacher, once again pressing the button on the laser unit and settling the red dot on the teacher's chest.

"PRIVATE HIRANO!" I barked. "Stand down, fall back and secure the women, NOW!"

Kouta was startled by my words and I winced at seeing him almost squeeze the trigger as he reacted.

Time to get the kid out of here before it was too late.

"You've just been given a direct order by your team leader Private." I said trying to sound authoritive. "Fall back and secure the women outside, I'll cover you. MOVE."

"Yes Sir!" Kouta replied, suddenly pointing the muzzle of his makeshift rifle in the air and turning around smartly as he stepped out the door.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and lowered my carbine watching Kouta join the others and then stand near the girls, keeping watch like he had been ordered.

"Good kid." I said out loud. That had been way TOO close. I was definitely going to be a lot more careful about the example I set in front of these kids from now on.

"Jimu-san,PLEASE, let's go!" Saeko said from outside the bus as she, Shizuka and Saya started to head for a flight of stairs leading up to a walkway.

"Hang on sweetie, I'll be along in a moment." I replied as she watched me from outside, probably thinking I was going to finish off the teacher once and for all.

I wasn't, but MAN, I was sure tempted, I gotta say.

* * *

I looked over at the teacher, and all pretense of civilized behavior was gone now on the man's face. All that was there now was blind hate.

"You know," I began, keeping my voice calm." All you had to do was help that boy to his feet and bring him to the bus. I would have protected both of you."

The man was in no mood for pleasantries whatsoever, and any thoughts I might have had that the man might have even a LITTLE remorse over anything that had happened were now about to be shot down.

"PROTECT ME?" He said in perfect English with scorn heavy on his voice and in his face." You protect me? THAT is such a laughable thought that I would need ANYTHING from the likes of you GAIJIN."

"Pretty good English." I said not surprised. English in Japan is about as common as speaking English and Spanish back home in Texas. "I knew you were full of it back there at the school."

"So why didn't you shoot then, my gaijin friend?" The man said scornfully.

"Simple, I'm not a murderer. You are." I retorted, keeping calm. The kids in the back of the bus were all terrified, staring at the teacher and myself. From the looks on their faces though, none of them wished to leave his side.

"The boy was bitten, I have already mentioned that, did I not?" He said looking at me with a real smug look on his face.

I was tired of this fool and this was getting nowhere. The man was on a path of evil and he was taking those kids with him and there was nothing I could do about it. I could only hope that somewhere down the line, justice would catch up with this man. Not one of our lives was worth getting hurt or killed for this psycho, and I had people depending on me to get them home. So screw him and all who followed him.

"Whatever. That's B.S. and we both know it." I said staring at him directly in the eye.

" I see you following us, or trying anything, or even see you giving an interview on TV, I'm not going to even give a warning. I'm just gonna pull the trigger." I said as I grabbed my bag and prepared to step out of the bus.

There was no reasoning with this man, not that I really wanted to. I just wanted to hear from his own lips the kind of man he really was, and I had found out.

I took a step towards the door when the teacher spoke again.

'Your name is Jim-u is it not?" He said feigning politeness.

"To my friends, yes." I replied as I put the straps of my pack on my shoulders and buckled the waist belt.

"You ain't." I said with a smile.

Smiling wickedly, Shido replied to the American's rebuff. "Very well, my gaijin friend, a thought for you to ponder as you and your friends make your break to "safety," such as it is."

"Yup?" I asked, waiting for him to start monologuing.

"You and I have unfinished business , and Japan IS an island after all. And you also have no way to return to your homeland so long as you and the rest of your mercenary friends remain an enemy of the state from the news report I heard on the radio, after your little fiasco at the airport yesterday morning. I'm sure we WILL meet again, and I'm truly looking forward to that day.'

The man's words hit me like a brick. He was right of course, I was still a wanted man, and with the Outbreak going on, the chances were good I would not be arrested by the police, but shot on sight as a terrorist. It would seem that this conniving weenie was going to have the last laugh no matter what I did, or where I went.

Still, if I was already a dead man, then the thought that I really hated worse right now more than anything was the idea of letting him have the last word.

"You know." I said, acting as if I were seriously pondering his words. "You're absolutely right. There IS nowhere for me to run and nowhere for me to hide, so you know what cabron'? I'm not even gonna try."

"Oh?" He said inquisitively.

"Naw, you know what? What I'm going to do is get these kid's safely to their homes and family." I said, calmly as I cinched the straps on my pack and then grabbed my carbine.

I then changed the tone of my voice to sheer contempt. "And then when I'm done with that, since I'm a dead man anyway, I'm just going to take particular delight in hunting you down."

"And since Japan is an island, like you said, there's nowhere YOU can hide either pendejo, so I know I'll find you eventually, no matter how long it takes."

I then gave him my biggest smile. "You know, I wouldn't have even thought about doing that till you mentioned it. Thanks for the great idea, bubba. Now I have a real purpose in life."

"See you in hell, asshole." I said as I stepped off the bus and slammed the door.

* * *

"Sensei?" One of the teenage girls in the back of the bus asked Shido, worried that the teacher had not said anything since the foreigner had slammed the door several moments before.

In truth, there WAS no reason for Shido to speak.

The betrayal had been complete, only it had been in THEIR favor, and the hated enemy that Shido had planned the perfect revenge for, had simply walked away.

His perfect plan had all fallen apart, and once again, he had been humiliated in front of everyone.

There were no words to say.

Koichi Shido could only grind his teeth in rage.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I worked on this chapter while I was sick with the flu, so it took me a little longer than the rest of the chapters to post it. Also, now that I've gotten to this portion of the fanfic where my character meets the original cast of HOTD, I decided that while I'm trying to stay in the spirit of the HOTD series, I didn't want to just re-hash the same story. If I did that, were would any original creativity be? And to be honest, most people don't read fanfics just to see the same story they're already familiar with. So in the chapters ahead, there will be some similarities with the series, but some distinct changes as well. I'm glad to see as always the great reviews and support I've gotten from all of ya'll and I'd like to again invite you to offer any suggestions or ideas you might have as I continue to write this fanfic. Thanks again for your support, and I'll be working on the next chapter.


	12. Chapter 11-Crossroads Part One

Last Alarm

Chapter 11

"Crossroads" -Part One

* * *

I slammed the door of the bus as hard as I could in disgust, and walked away half-hoping the little jerk would come busting through the door trying to start something. I knew he wouldn't follow me though. It's easy for people like him to assault an injured boy who's lying helpless on the ground, and also even brazenly try to kill a man in his sleep. But as Kouta had just proven, if you stand your ground against such people, they'll back down in a hurry when the advantage is NOT in their favor.

Of course it helps to be well armed to defend yourself against such people too.

Shizuka and the teens were still waiting for me at the foot of a flight of stairs that went up to a walkway leading to another street level on a hill. There wasn't any visible danger around, but just to be safe, I looked up and down the street that we were on just to make sure no one had noticed me and all my hardware, not to mention looking out for any of our Infected friends still shuffling around. Seeing nothing but scared civilians running for the hills, I joined up with the group at the bottom of the stairs, keeping an eye open towards the door of the mini-bus.

As usual, Saya was chewing out Kouta again, probably for coming damn near close to killing the teacher earlier.

I swear though, these two sounded like an old married couple whenever they were together. I don't know what it was that Kouta saw in the girl, but he sure was one heck of a patient kid for putting up with all her constant nagging, even though she wasn't even his girlfriend. I can't imagine what life would be like for these two if they ever did end up together.

"You okay, son? I said looking at Kouta as he cringed under the onslaught of Saya's barrage of words. I was more worried about how he was feeling after nearly coming so close to killing the teacher. But it seems he was well over that, and the current source of his anxiety was coming from the missus right now.

The poor kid didn't answer me, not that I blamed him. Against a sadistic murderer, he had risen before the threat, defiant and courageous. Under this tiny girl's fury though, he cowered like a beaten mule. Guess that's why they call it being "whipped" eh, guys?

"What are you screaming at him for NOW, pumpkin?" I asked Saya as I walked over and stood near Kouta.

"I was yelling at him for being so stupid, pig-headed, and reckless for confronting Shido-sensei like that." She said glaring at him as she spoke.

"He was only trying to protect all of you. It was a very brave thing to do, all things considered. What's so wrong about that?" I asked with a smirk.

"It's not funny!" Saya said, looking at me, highly annoyed. "What if Shido-sensei or one of the other boys had tried to fight back?"

"Then they would have been shot by ME." I said, nonchalantly.

I wouldn't have really, but Kouta and the rest were in no real danger by that jerk as long as I was still alive and kicking.

"But I suppose your right." I said, seeing an opportunity to both tease Saya and also give Kouta a big boost to his morale, especially now that Saya had pretty much mashed what was left of it into the dirt.

" Kouta could have been hurt by doing that, not to mention that he could have shot your teacher or one of the other boys and would have had to live with that guilt the rest of his life."

"EXACTLY!" Saya said giving Kouta a serious case of the stink-eye.

"You see Kouta? I knew she liked you." I said, trying to keep a straight face. "I figured all that yelling was because she was just worried about you and didn't want you to get hurt."

"Wha-wha WHAT!" Saya said turning beet-red. "I DIDN'T SAY I LIKED HIM!" She sputtered, trying to reverse herself out of the trap she had accidentally fallen into. "I SAID NO SUCH THING!"

"You didn't have to." I said, doing my best to sound nonchalant. "Sometimes during periods of the strongest emotion, you can easily read what's in a person's heart by the things they say, and in your case, you were yelling at him because you were afraid he'd get hurt. So it only makes sense that the only reason you would do that is because you like him."

"That's actually very sweet , Saya-chan. I said trying to keep from laughing as she blushed more and more.

"Word of advice though pumpkin? " I continued, giving her a wink as I did so.

"Save the screaming and nagging for AFTER you're both married. It's expected then. If you want a boy to know you like him, a kiss or even holding his hand will work wonders and achieve much better results than nagging and yelling at him all the time to get his attention, believe me."

"WHAT?! I -I'm NOT,….. SHUT UP!" Saya screeched, as she ran behind Shizuka trying to hide.

Kouta meanwhile, was in la-la land. I guess the idea of him and Saya kissing and holding hands, had overloaded his brain.

Saeko and Shizuka both looked at me with an expression on their faces that said "BEHAVE YOURSELF", and I couldn't help but smile innocently at them.

"WHAT?" I said, acting dumb.

* * *

Of course, it really wasn't the time to be screwing around here out in the open with panicked civilians, armed police, and blood-thirsty monsters lurking around, so I put my game face back on and started heading towards the stairs.

"Ok guys." I said being serious now. "We need to get moving if we want to make the police station before dark. So everyone, I need you to stay in a line and follow behind me a few feet away as we move. Saeko, you're behind me, Shizuka, you walk behind her, and Saya , stay behind Shizuka, and KOUTA?"

"KOUTA!" I said trying to snap him out of his romantic haze.

"Yes Sir?!" He said, finally snapping out of it.

"Focus, son. How many rounds do you have left?" I asked.

"About twenty left, SIR!" He said smartly.

"Easy on the caffeine, son." I said, trying to be patient with his extreme enthusiasm of yelling out "SIR!" every time I said something.

"All right then, your rear security, so you make sure no one is following us and signal if you see something. Ok?"

"Yes SIR!" He said again, with even more enthusiasm.

"Well, hero worship or just plain overzealousness aside, his love and devotion for all things military would be useful as our journey continued. It had saved a life today, and very well might be what pulls ALL of us through this ordeal." I thought in the back of my head as I carefully walked up the stairs.

If not for my addressing him as "Private Hirano" as I would have a real soldier, he would have undoubtedly shot that weasel a while ago and the thought of him coming so close to doing exactly that still bothered me. However, I began to believe, that other than that incident, I could count on him just as I did with Saeko and Takashi to be able to handle things if he and the rest ever found themselves alone again.

Still, being called "SIR!" all the time, was getting a little annoying.

"Son, I'm not some blankety-blank , ranker." (Officer) "I WORK for a living dammit." I used to say, whenever some young rookie ever called me "sir" back in the days when I was still a fireman.

I was always joking of course, it was a joke I would pull on a new recruit we just hired who was so jumpy trying to make a good impression of himself, that he started talking to everyone as if he was still in the Academy. I'd tell them that joke in an effort to help the newbie to relax a bit.

And also, to irk my commanding officer as well.

I told you, we firemen love our practical jokes.

Oh man, all the lieutenant's I used to work for would get so pissed off when I told that to a rookie in front of them.

Which is one of the reasons why I did it in the first place.

"Ah, the good old days, before monsters and murderous psychos" I thought, as I raised my carbine to my shoulder as I neared the edge of the stairs. I did a quick sweep of the walkway right and left as I neared the top, and seeing nothing, I walked up past the stairs and went to my right, lowering my rifle.

* * *

I heard the others following me, and I kept scanning the area ahead as I moved, just as I would if I had been on patrol with the guys, keeping my rifle at my shoulder, but muzzle pointed down. I could still pull it up quickly if I needed to shoot.

If this were a combat patrol in the bush, things would be done a LOT differently. But our biggest fear was the Infected who didn't use firearms and the police whom I really didn't want to appear as a threat to either. I really didn't want another show-down with the local police like yesterday again, so I tried to not look too aggressive. Even though one look at me, and anyone could tell, I was definitely NOT your usual American tourist.

I heard a loud shout from Saya suddenly, and I quickly spun around with the muzzle of my carbine half-way up thinking something had happened, when I saw that it was only Saya yelling at Kouta in anger, AGAIN.

Watching these two bicker constantly was normally hilarious usually, but right now, this was getting REALLY old, REALLY fast.

"Will you two, KNOCK IT OFF?! " I said annoyed at their latest little tiff. "What's wrong now?"

"I CAUGHT HIM LOOKING UP MY SKIRT!" Saya said, extremely annoyed and blushing again as she held the back of her skirt against her butt with both hands, trying to keep Kouta from getting another glimpse of her undies. Kouta meanwhile, had this dumb, dreamy-eyed look plastered all over his face which only proved that he had obviously snuck a peek at something he wasn't supposed to as they had climbed up the steps..

I sighed, as did Saeko and Shizuka.

THIS was going to be a very LONG day with these two.

Since the kid only had a nail gun and 20 nails to shoot with, I figured it was best to put him at the rear where it was safer, and I had purposefully left Saya with him, hoping that since he was so protective of her, he'd be more vigilant on keeping an eye out for trouble.

Seeing as how I haven't known what it's like to be a teenager in a very LONG time now, I hadn't considered that raging teenage hormones and a cute girl's butt will overrule duty and vigilance any day.

This was getting ridiculous.

"Keep your eyes OFF her butt, and ON your SURROUNDINGS for potential THREATS when we're in the field, KOUTA." I said, trying to once again sound authoritive.

"And YOU," I said pointing at Saya. "Quit yelling all the time pumpkin. That loud yelling of yours is gonna compromise all of us. I'm surprised we're not being surrounded right now by an entire herd of Infected as loud as you yelled. I don't wanna hear you yelling again, understood?"

"Someone gets hurt because you guys were too busy playing PANTY PEEK-A-BOO, and then squabbling over it loud enough for all the world to hear, I'm not just gonna chew you out next time. I'm gonna send BOTH of you packing. GOT IT?"

I wouldn't have done that of course, but it was no time for silliness, and I had to be firm.

"Yes, sir." They both said, looking at the ground.

I had to admit, they looked extremely funny all embarrassed the way they were at that moment. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. Still, enough was enough, especially with danger all around.

"Ok, let's go." I said, shaking my head.

I couldn't help but wonder how many military commanders in the field ever had to experience leading a patrol as ridiculous as this one was turning out to be.

* * *

For the next couple hours, our journey proved uneventful. And without any more panty peeks.

We could see people in the distance trying to head for some unknown sanctuary, but we saw no Infected for a while. A few families carrying some hastily packed suitcases passed us by every now and then, but they didn't stop to converse.

They did little more than stare at our strange procession as we walked by, and then quickly moved on.

I guess the sight of a heavily armed Latino-American, a blond Japanese woman wearing a medical pack while dressed in formal attire, and a group of kids, one with the brightest shade of pink hair anyone ever saw, and all of them armed with home-made weapons walking down the street, was not as weird this particular day as it probably would have been before the Outbreak started.

We continued to walk in silence, stopping to rest every hour for about ten minutes. It was after hour number four, after we had walked around a bend in the road. That we finally came across a bridge going across the river. It was also then, that I noticed Shizuka was slightly limping on her right foot.

"What's wrong with your foot, hon?" I said concerned as she limped over to the side of the road and sat down on a large stone.

"Oh, it's nothing, really." She said, trying to pass it off.

I wasn't buying it though. I could plainly see the discomfort she was really in, and I walked over to her and took off my pack.

"What hurts?" I asked as I kneeled down to pick up her foot and remove her shoe.

Shizuka though, was more concerned with protecting her modesty than my examining her foot and nearly fell off the rock trying to pull her torn dress together.

"Take it easy hon." I said trying to put her at ease. " I'm not some horny teenager trying to sneak a peek like Kouta did a while ago." I said grinning at her as she laughed, and Kouta and Saya blushed.

I moved to the right side of her anyway, just to be considerate of her modesty. I then lifted her foot and placed it on my knee and slowly and carefully removed the shoe.

"Owwwwww." She said under her breath as the shoe came off.

Yup, just as I had thought, a big blister had formed on the side of her foot next to her baby toe, right where the shoe pinched the toes together. And as she walked, the shoe leather had rubbed the skin pretty badly. The blister that had formed had now burst and the area was pretty raw and slightly bleeding.

I'm sure that by now, it was no doubt, pretty painful for her to try to keep walking in these shoes. The shoes she was wearing were designer shoes made for office use only and not for long distance travel, so it was only a matter of time before she started to have problems with her feet.

"How long have you had this blister, Shizuka-san?'' I asked, frowning at the wound.

" A couple of hours now. But it really started hurting an hour ago, after the last break." She said all apologetically. "I'm so sorry, I should have said something sooner. I didn't want to be a bother."

I looked up at her and smiled trying to put her at ease. The old friendly neighborhood paramedic in me still surfaces every now and then.

"Don't ever worry about being a bother hon." I said opening the med bag on my pack. "The time to say something though is BEFORE it gets worse, not WHEN it's already gotten worse, next time, ok?"

"Ok." She said, blushing slightly as I held her foot on my knee, while I rummaged through the med bag. I took out a small packet of antibiotic ointment and smeared it on a large Band-Aid I had taken out of its wrapper, and placed it over the raw skin.

She made a groaning sound as I placed the bandage on the wound that was now pretty tender, and seeing as how she had been walking on it for so long, I decided to let her take an extended break.

What she really needed was some sort of mobile transportation and a decent pair of walking shoes though. For now since neither was available, a longer break would have to do.

"We'll rest here for a while, and when you're up to it, we'll move on and try to cross that bridge." I said looking at everyone.

"Then again." I said aloud, looking over at the bridge not very far away from us, with a large amount of vehicles parked on it.

"Maybe I can just commandeer one of those cars and just pick them all up so she doesn't have to walk anymore. At least until we get to the bridge." I thought.

The bridge wasn't that far away. Even if we couldn't drive across it, it would be a lot easier on Shizuka if she didn't have to walk and I could just grab a car. Right now, anything that would help our situation would be worth trying for.

I opened a pouch on my combat vest and took out a small monocular from it. It's not extremely powerful, but it's handy for quick recon. I saw the vehicles of all makes and models lying parked on the bridge pretty clearly all right, but there didn't seem to be any drivers or panicked civilians around on the bridge at all. Matter of fact, there was no movement of ANY kind on the bridge as far as I could see.

"Not a good sign, but might be worth a shot anyway." I said aloud.

"What's that?" Saeko said curious.

"I'm gonna try to get us some transportation, and see if we can cross over there." I said pointing at the bridge and handing the monocular to Saeko. I pulled the map case off my belt and unfolded it as she peered through the glass.

"Ok Shizuka-san, we're about here, right?" I said as I kneeled next to Shizuka and unfolded the map on my knee and pointed to a bridge outlined on the map.

"Yes." Shizuka confirmed, staring at the map.

"Allright, and here's the jail. So if we cross here, we can be at the jail hopefully before sundown if I can get us a car that runs, and the bridge is clear enough."

''It doesn't look clear." Saeko said still looking through the glass.

"No, it doesn't." I said nodding my head. "But it wouldn't hurt to take a look and at least try to get a working vehicle anyway, that way we can ride instead of walk. All this walking isn't doing her feet any good, and I'm tired of us having to hump all over the city myself, so I'm gonna head over that way and try and get us a ride."

" BY YOURSELF?" Saeko said, looking at me alarmed.

"I'll be OK." I said. " I was up and down the entire city yesterday. A few hundred yards in plain view of you guys ain't gonna hurt me."

"I don't like it." Saeko said, her face getting serious. "It seems too risky to go alone. I'll go with you."

"Negative." I said looking at her, as I put away the map and donned my pack again. "I need you here, standing guard watching Shizuka along with Kouta and Saya."

"Hirano-kun and Takagi-san can stand guard over Marikawa-sensei." Saeko said, suddenly defiant. "I see no reason why you should go alone. It's an unnecessary risk, and foolish."

Normally, one would expect for me to be upset with a teenager arguing with me when it came to making a decision like the one I was making right now. But I understood her fear, and she was right.

It was EXTREMELY risky, no doubt about it. But it needed to be done and arguing about it wasn't going to solve anything. Saeko was a very level-headed girl, and I appreciated her concern and good sense.

I was growing quite fond of her to be honest, even if she was too smart for her own good in this case.

"Saeko-chan," I began, trying to reason with her.

"NO." She said, crossing her arms.

* * *

"No?" I said surprised at her comment.

"Waddaya mean NO?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"NO. You are NOT going out there by yourself Jimu-san, it's too dangerous to go anywhere alone and you take too many risks as it is."

"You are NOT going all alone out there by yourself, and that's final." Saeko said, giving me "THE LOOK."

"THE LOOK? What's that?" you're probably wondering.

If you're married or have a girlfriend, you have already experienced it, and know what I'm talking about. If not, then that would be the facial expression that a woman gives you when she's really pissed off that says, " YOU are about to lose your manhood right here and now if you even THINK about arguing with me."

I saw Kouta, Saya and Shizuka cringe a bit at Saeko's ultimatum.

"WHOOOA!" I thought, laughing inwardly.

I couldn't help but be a little amused by her rebuff, honestly.

This young girl that I had only met yesterday was now laying down the law to me.

I was thrown for a loop, to say the least. This was a strange turn of events. It had been a long time since a woman had backed me in a corner in quite a while.

As I said before, I've been on the receiving end of a woman's wrath before, but for some reason, this young woman stopped me cold for a second. I guess I was just taken back by her showing such inner strength all of a sudden. And at the same time, I was touched by her concern.

I knew she was only worried about me and not being argumentative. She had a good point, but there was a reason for my decision, and we were wasting time.

I looked at her face that was devoid of emotion and smirked.

"My goodness, for a moment there I thought I had gotten married and didn't even know it." I said jokingly.

There was NO reaction at ALL from the stone-faced princess.

"Oh boy." I thought. "Jokes were NOT gonna break the icy stare I was getting right now. Better just be up front and honest about it."

No wonder she won that Kendo championship last year. I'd hate to have been the opponent to go up against her myself.

"Ok, hon. You made your point, and it's a good one." I said looking at her eyes that were pretty scary to look at right now I must admit.

"But right now," I continued. "This is our current situation. We have one walking wounded who has no weapon or fighting skills of any kind." I said, speaking low, so Shizuka and the others couldn't hear.

"You have one boy with a nail gun and only twenty shots left and a girl whose only weapon is her ego and her ability to be a brat. Myself on the other hand, I have my weapons and my training, and the ability to drive a car."

" So you tell me Saeko-chan, what would you do in my place?"

The emotionless mask Saeko wore fell, as a frown formed on her brow and she thought long and hard at what I had just said. There was just no getting around it. Shizuka's foot was a problem. Walking long distances for her now was a serious concern. Her having to run on an injured foot to escape the Infected would end up being a disaster.

Also, having ANY of the teens go up to the bridge alone was a definite NO. None of them knew how to drive, and if a problem occurred, they would have to deal with it all alone.

Neither could one of them go with me.

Kouta's nail gun was a good weapon, not a great one, but good enough. Still, he couldn't back me up very well with only 20 shots left and his home-made weapon only having an effective range of only two meters, which would be useless against a rushing horde.

Shizuka couldn't fight very effectively with an injured foot even if she did have some fighting skills.

Saya's fighting skills beyond yelling were yet to be seen, but she could at least help Shizuka get away by helping semi-carry her.

I didn't want to take Saya along anyway. Don't get me wrong, I liked the pumpkin a lot, but Kouta wouldn't be able to stop worrying about her and still be able maintain his focus on protecting everyone else.

And besides, with Saya and her sarcastic mouth, I might lose my cool and end up putting her over my knee if I had to be alone with the spoiled princess for an extended period of time and she persisted in mouthing off.

And that left only Saeko, and she was just too valuable here.

* * *

I moved closer to Saeko and gently put my hands on her shoulders as she looked up at me, still frowning.

"Saeko-chan. I know you don't like what I'm telling you. But do you understand now why I chose you and Takashi to be in charge of everyone if I'm NOT around anymore?" I said to her again as if I were talking to my own daughter, just like I had done before.

"You of all of these people standing here are the only one I know, that can make the right decisions in a crisis. You are the strongest fighter, without a doubt. But you don't go looking for a fight and you don't act without thinking first. And then there's something else that I truly like about you. You always put others before you, and you don't ever think of yourself first. That makes you a great leader."

I could see she was beginning to understand, but she still didn't like it one bit.

"Sometimes a leader has to make hard choices hon. Even the ones that he or she hates to make, for the greater good, sweetie." I said, as she looked at me. I could see the conflict in her eyes, and it was a horrible thing for her to have to deal with so early in her young life.

I leaned forward and hugged her.

"Don't worry hon," I said to her gently. "If there's any sign of trouble, I'll turn back and we'll work something else out. I promise, OK?"

Saeko felt a little strange being hugged by the American. Traditionally, for many years in Japan, men seldom embraced their wives or children in public. Such open displays of affection were simply not done, and her father rarely did so himself when she was a little girl growing up. This man however, seemed to not have any issues whatsoever with trying to offer comfort or affection to anyone when the occasion arose.

" Takagi-san is right, Americans are strange people. And this one is definitely different." Saeko thought. Yet, at the same time, Saeko was not uncomfortable or offended by the man who had just embraced her. Neither had she felt that the man was treating her like an immature child either.

"He knows I'm afraid, and he's treating me as if I were his own daughter that was afraid that he was going to be hurt or killed if he left." Saeko thought.

Despite herself Saeko allowed herself to hug him back, feeling both sad and yet, strangely comforted also by his embrace.

Saeko then began to feel her eyes beginning to tear.

"Hey." I said as I let Saeko go and saw her eyes getting moist. "I won't get into any trouble, OK? I PROMISE. And I'll be back soon."

"Ok hon?" I said.

"Allright." Saeko said looking away.

"Hey." The man said leaning in close to her face. "Try not to worry so much, all right Saeko-chan? I'm old, but I'm not THAT senile and decrepit yet where I'm gonna get hurt that easily." He said smiling, trying to make her laugh.

"I'll try not to." Saeko said smiling a bit, although she was not happy at all about what the man was about to do.

Saeko to her horror, started to sniffle a bit, and she quickly turned away, hating that she was losing control. She had NEVER let anyone see her get emotional before. Now it seemed the strong defensive walls that she had surrounded herself with all of her life, were quickly crumbling down.

The man wiped the tears running down her cheeks with his hand.

"It'll be okay, hon." He said. 'And thank you, for caring so much about an old guy like me."

"That's why you're my favorite." He said as he let her go and checked his rifle.

"Just don't tell Saya I said that." The American said winking at her as he turned towards the others.

Saeko laughed and wiped her face with her hands as the man began to speak to the others.

* * *

"Ok guys, I'm gonna go find us a car on that bridge if I can, and maybe scout out that bridge and see if we can get across. If we can't cross there, then we can at least drive around and find us another way across the river by driving around town instead of walking all over the city on foot. I'll be back soon. Stay here until I get back. If you run into trouble, YELL. And I'll come running. Saeko is in charge until I get back."

Of course, who do you think DIDN'T like THAT idea? You only get one guess.

What?! Waddaya mean you don't know?

HAVEN'T you been paying attention to this story at all?!

Geez, go back to Chapter One and start over. :P

"Why is SHE being put in charge?" Saya asked defiantly.

Oh yeah, I knew THAT was coming.

"Because she's smart, strong, and dependable, and I trust her" I said looking at Saya directly in the eye.

"Of course, if you want to argue over it, I suggest you take it up with HER." I said walking off.

Saya looked over at Saeko and gulped as Saeko gave her "The LOOK."

"Yup, I thought so. See you in a bit guys. Behave yourselves." I said as I started walking down the road. Hopefully I'd be driving back with a car and a plan in no time at all.

Saeko looked at the back of the man as he walked away. In such a short time, the man had affected each and every one of them so immensely.

He had burst into their lives unexpectedly, under the worst possible conditions imaginable, in the middle of a horrible nightmare none thought possible. Yet throughout all that, he had tried despite everything that was happening around them, to take the time to treat them with a care, compassion and genuine respect that few adults normally would before.

He had also treated them with the same affection as if they were his own children that he really cared about, instead of treating them as if they were a burden he was involuntarily stuck with and a bother.

"Such a strange person that has come into our lives so suddenly." Saeko thought as the man walked away.

And then, for no apparent reason, a sudden sadness gripped her heart as she watched him go.

For some reason she could not explain, somewhere deep within her heart, she felt as if she were watching him walk away for the very last time.

* * *

Author's Notes:

As I was writing this chapter it occurred to me that this part of the story was turning out to be longer than I expected, and so to make it easier for me to post, I decided to break down this chapter into smaller parts.

So this will be Chapter Eleven-Part One, followed by the rest of the smaller chapters as I finish them out. "Last Alarm" is a story that has grown bigger as I've gone along, and I'm happy that so far, everyone seems to enjoy it. As always, suggestions are welcome, and I hope to keep hearing from all of you as the story progresses.

As you can probably tell by now "Jim" is the "father" figure in this story, and the teens are pretty much adopted by him as they travel together.

While most fans of the original series may not be all that happy having an adult lead in a story that had originally put teens in the lead role instead of the adults, the main reason I did this was because as the story progresses, the adults and the teens both began to appreciate each other as the dangers increase, and in time, the teens are going to have to fight for their lives against living humans, as well as Infected ones.

In the anime, the teens show considerable bravery and super-human feats of strength and so forth.

I'm not trying to water down the teen's abilities. I'm just trying to be more realistic about what human beings are more likely to do in such a horrible situation and how they would react with one another.

"HOTD" and "The Walking Dead" are both great shows that deal with how humans react in this kind of situation. But I thought I'd try to show the more positive side of how people would act and the bonds that could form in a group that relied more heavily on each other as each day passed.

Please bear with me, this story is still a work in progress and I'm still trying to work out the kinks.

The kids start to really be more assertive in future chapters, especially Part Two of this chapter, so hang in there, it gets better.

As for "Jim" and his being so fatherly with the kids?

Well, I treat all victims as if they were family if possible. And it's not just me either. That has been a standard taught to EVERY rescue worker in every EMS and Fire and Police Academy for years. And I know the guys in the Military do it too.

Doing that personally for me though I believe, has helped me be a better medic and a better human being I think, and ALWAYS when it came to kids, I always treated them as if they were my own too.

And I'd like to think, naïve as it may sound to a person who doesn't do this for a living or volunteers to do it, that ANY adult, especially one who is a firefighter, paramedic, police or military of ANY nation would be moved in his or her heart to treat anyone's child that was scared, lost, and alone, as if their lives were important.

And I honestly believe that they would too.

Again, as always, my sincerest thanks to all of you for reading my story and all your kind reviews.

I'll be working on Part Two now. Thanks! Jim


	13. Chapter 12-Crossroads Part Two

Last Alarm

Chapter 12

"Crossroads" Part Two

* * *

Saeko watched the American walk all alone down the long stretch of road leading to the bridge in hopes of obtaining a vehicle suitable enough to transport their small party, and as she watched him walk away, she reflected on what had happened to her earlier. She could not understand why she had so suddenly, and for no apparent reason, started to cry in the man's arms as he held her. Adding to her confusion, nor could she understand as to why she had felt an immediate dread that she would no longer see him again as he walked away.

Thinking that it was nothing more than concern over a comrade's safety, she tried to shake it off. He was indeed, taking a huge risk by going out all on his own into an area that was extremely dangerous without anyone to help him if he came under attack, so it was only natural for her to worry, wasn't it?

Saeko had long trained herself to control her emotions as part of her budo training. All those like Saeko who practice the martial arts must be completely committed to the mastery of their art and absolute focus and mental concentration are a large part of their training.

So too had it been for Saeko , spending hours each day over many years routinely absorbed in meditation and rigid discipline, allowing Saeko to gradually reach her full potential in her continued pursuit of her mastery of kenjutsu.

Few students of kenjutsu her age, had ever reached her level of skill or enlightenment. And NO one had EVER seen her betray even the slightest bit of fear or any type of emotion when competing against her in kendo matches.

Yet for some reason today of all times, her emotions had gotten the best of her. And her normally calm, serene demeanor had begun to fail in front of everyone. It had never happened before, and the fact that it had, bothered her immensely, especially now when lives were at stake. At a time when a cool head was needed the most she had almost been unable to maintain her composure, and had nearly come apart at the seams.

"Perhaps I'm just overreacting " Saeko thought, tiredly. "It has been a long day, and it isn't like I completely lost control of myself either. Perhaps, I'm just exhausted from everything that's happened."

She continued to watch the American as he walked towards the bridge initially, and then started to jog towards it, probably in an effort to hurry up and carry out his plan as the evening hours approached.

And then again, for no apparent reason that she could explain, she felt another twinge of sadness come over her as she watched him move further and further away. And once again she began to feel her eyes tear up, as she quickly tried to conceal her face from the others.

Saya, standing behind her next to Kouta, also watched the man jog towards the bridge although her reaction, was significantly different from Saeko's, as she scowled at the departing figure.

" Tsk, stupid, bossy, old fart." Saeko heard Saya grumble behind her.

* * *

Immediately, Saeko bristled at hearing Saya's words, and before she could stop herself, she replied angrily to Saya's comment.

"WHAT, did you say Takagi-san?" Saeko said, not turning around to look at her.

Sensing she had just put herself in an extremely dangerous position with the wrong person to piss off right now, Saya immediately tried to back pedal out of the predicament she had just gotten herself into.

"Eh? Oh nothing, nothing." Saya said waving her hands, knowing full well she was in hot water.

"Takagi-san." Saeko said, her voice so frigid, Saya felt a shiver go up her spine as she spoke.

"I do enjoy the pleasure of your company, somewhat comical as it has proven to be, and I also thank you for the contributions you have made towards our survival WHATEVER they may have been because I cannot THINK of anything you've done that's been USEFUL at all since we've met." Saeko said with venom in her voice. But, I grow extremely tired of your childish behavior and your sarcastic remarks. Especially the ones you have made towards Jimu-san."

Saeko turned around to face Saya, and the look in her eyes made Saya feel weak at the knees.

"From this point on, if you have any more snide remarks to make towards him, then keep them to yourself. I DO NOT want to hear such things come out of your mouth again, and if they do, you had better not let me hear you say them, UNDERSTAND?!" Saeko said, the air practically crackling around her.

Saya was taken aback at first by Saeko's rebuke and the obvious threat that came with it. But she had never been one to back down from a fight either, and as her resentment at being humiliated and threatened by the older teen broiled into anger, she suddenly balled up her fists, and the shocked look that had been on her face, quickly contorted into one of fury.

"Or, you'll do WHAT EXACTLY?!" Saya retorted defiantly. "Are you going to bash my head in with your STUPID SWORD just because I said something mean about your precious "UNCLE"?!"

Saeko gripped her bokken so hard, that everyone could hear the sound of the wood compressing under her hand as she squeezed it.

"Do NOT test me, little girl." Saeko said calmly, her own blood boiling.

"WHAT, DID YOU CALL ME?!" Saya, shouted.

"Takagi-san?" Kouta said meekly, sensing the storm that was brewing and about to be unleashed.

Saya brushed him off without a word, and took a step towards Saeko, as a catastrophic face-off seemed inevitable.

"SMACK!"

* * *

The sound of leather hitting bare skin sounded like a gunshot as Shizuka slapped the sole of her shoe against her open palm in an effort to turn the two angry girl's attention away from each other and put an end to the argument that was a heartbeat away from coming to blows.

"THAT IS ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU! STOP IT, RIGHT NOW!" Shizuka said in a voice that was nothing like that of the normally timid woman that they had all been accustomed to hearing at school.

Everyone looked at the school nurse as she stood up, in spite the painful blister on her foot, placed her hands on her hips, and then glared at the both of them, a large scowl on her face.

Her normally friendly, happy-go-lucky demeanor was gone. What stood before them now was a completely different person, furious and without fear, and it caused them all to hesitate to continue with their argument any further.

"I can't believe the BOTH of you!" Shizuka said staring into the faces of both girls. "Fighting over such a STUPID little thing, like name-calling. We have enough problems as it is without any of us having to start fighting amongst ourselves over something so stupid. NONE of you wish to be treated like children, yet, LOOK at how you're behaving!"

"SAEKO-CHAN." Shizuka said, glaring at Saeko. "Jimu-san left you in charge to protect us, not get mad and go off and start a fight about something that wasn't worth listening to in the first place!"

"AND YOU, Takagi-san." Shizuka said, pointing her shoe that was still in her hand in a way that scared Saya even more than anything else had in the past few minutes.

"Grow up! I'm also tired of your silly, childish behavior and your snide remarks too. You're better than that, so start ACTING like it!"

"I'm so disappointed in the BOTH of you, and if Jimu-san were here, he would be too. He is risking his life to help all of us to get to safety and is trusting in all us to protect each other when he's not here, and you are all behaving like THIS, five minutes after he has just left."

" I am so ashamed of the BOTH of you!" Shizuka said, crossing her arms.

Shocked at the sudden change in the nurse's demeanor, and the chastisement that they had just received, the two girls' were rendered speechless.

Realizing that there was truly no way to argue the point with the angry nurse, the two teens conceded defeat, lest Shizuka bring the shoe she kept gesturing with into play. They both quietly lowered their heads, and bowed.

"Gomen nasai." They said, sounding every bit as foolish as they felt.

* * *

Shizuka was secretly relieved that the fight had been stopped before it had gone too far. Still, things had almost gotten out of hand, and it was time to get to the root of the problem before another confrontation became inevitable.

"That's better." Shizuka said. "I don't EVER want to see that again from EITHER of you, EVER."

Shizuka then turned her attention to Saya who instantly recoiled from the sight of Shizuka's shoe mere inches away from her face as Shizuka uncrossed her arms and pointed it at her.

"Takagi-san, I need a moment with Saeko-chan." Shizuka said, her voice firm and even, maintaining control despite the obvious frustration she felt.

"H-Hai." Saya said, backing away quickly and dragging Kouta along with her a slight distance away.

"Saeko-chan? I'd like a word with you please." Shizuka said, looking at Saeko.

"Hai." Saeko said, wide-eyed as she tried to stay out of the striking range of the nurse's shoe.

Shizuka limped back to her seat on top of the railing that she had been sitting on and motioned for Saeko to sit near her.

"I think I'll stand sensei, thank you." Saeko said warily.

Shizuka giggled as she realized her shoe was still in her right hand and she quickly placed it on the ground and again motioned for Saeko to sit.

"Please Saeko-chan." She said in a very pleasant voice, the look on her face no longer angry, but calm, serene, kind.

Motherly.

Saeko sat on the railing next to the nurse and felt Shizuka place her hand on her shoulder, and said nothing as the two women listened to the sound of the river behind them and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing as Saeko waited for the nurse to speak.

"He reminds you of your father doesn't he?" Shizuka said, finally breaking the spell.

"Eh?" Saeko said, caught off guard. "My father? You mean Jimu-san?"

"Hai." Shizuka said, smiling sweetly. "You call Jimu-san, "Uncle" out of respect. But I see the way you look at him, and from what I can see, it appears that the way you keep looking at him is more like you're looking at your father than a friend Saeko-chan."

"Is that why you are so sad right now?" Shizuka asked, putting her arm around Saeko.

Saeko was taken aback by the nurses' blunt statement and was at a loss for words at first. It hadn't occurred to her that perhaps the reason she was so upset right now WAS because of her worry over her father.

"He is nothing like my father at all." Saeko said looking towards the American who had now reached the bridge and was climbing up the embankment towards it.

"But you were thinking of him just the same when Jimu left, didn't you Saeko-chan?" Shizuka asked.

Saeko pondered it for a moment, and then the pieces started to fall in place.

"I-I suppose I was." Saeko admitted, still stunned.

"And that's also the real reason Takagi-san's words hurt so much when she made her comment a while ago, isn't it?" Shizuka said rubbing Saeko's shoulder and hugging her.

Saeko was still coming to grips with the nurses' words, and it all began to make sense now.

She WAS worried about her father, and in his absence, she had begun to connect with the American in her father's place. And as she began to realize the real truth behind her emotions getting away from her, she suddenly felt intense sadness and guilt course through her, not just over her conflicting emotions. But also the fact that the effect they were having on her, was starting to also affect the way she was treating those around her.

Shizuka held her tighter as she could sense the young woman's emotions conflicting within her.

"Do not blame yourself for what you are feeling Saeko-chan, or the way you are reacting to it." Shizuka added.

"When we are alone and afraid, it's hard not to find comfort with those who show us kindness when the ones we love are not around, or lash out because our loved ones aren't here with us."

Saeko said nothing, but nodded her head.

"How could you tell I was thinking of my father when I was watching Jimu-san leave?" Saeko asked, still puzzled at the nurses ability to be so insightful.

"I saw the way you hugged him when he tried to comfort you Saeko-chan." Shizuka said, and then added.

"It was the exact same way Saya-chan hugged him back at the school, in the faculty room."

Saeko was stunned by the last comment from the school nurse and looked at Shizuka's face.

Shizuka smiled and stroked Saeko's long hair.

"You and Saya-chan are more alike than you think Saeko-chan." Shizuka said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Both of you are experiencing the same pain of your father not being here now when you need him the most. And since neither of your fathers are here, both of you are reacting differently to the man that IS here in their place."

" And since both of you are hurting in different ways, it's expected that you would both react differently when you both watched him leave. Saya with anger, and you with sadness."

Saeko was still a little confused by the nurse's words, but as she sat there with the nurse calmly stroking her hair, thoughts of her father began to enter her mind.

He was gone so often visiting the family dojo overseas, that Saeko could barely remember the last time she had seen him for more than a few days at a time.

And the memories she had of her father that were the most vivid lately, were of him leaving the house on his way to the limo carrying him to the airport.

And then the truth of the nurse's words hit her, and she realized it was exactly why she had felt so sad at watching the American walk away.

She WAS seeing the image of her own father leaving her.

The sadness she was now experiencing was the grief she had felt every time her father left her behind to travel overseas and it WAS the reason she had started crying when the American held her as she tried to prevent him from leaving.

Her own father NEVER hugged her, ever. And the pain she felt at being alone had come in a rush as the foreigner had held her and treated her with so much affection and kindness that had been absent in her life for so long.

And Saeko now knew why she had grown so attached to the American so quickly. He had done all the things she wished her father would, and was never there to do.

Saeko suddenly felt her eyes tear up again and a sob escaped her lips as hot tears began to fall down her face. Shizuka held her close as the sobs came and Saeko Busujima let the pain of years of loneliness come out in a flood.

* * *

Saya watched sadly from where she stood with Kouta as Saeko let out the grief that had been tormenting her for years, and then Saya's own heart became overcome with guilt with the knowledge that she had also added to the older teen's grief. The words she had said earlier now stung her conscience, and her own emotions at seeing Saeko weep caused her own heart to break as well.

Hot tears began to fall from her face, as she tried hard to keep them concealed from the rest of the group. Unfortunately for her pride, her tears hadn't gone unnoticed though.

"Takagi-san." Kouta said looking at her. "Are you all right?"

Kouta saw her crying, and just like back at the Faculty room when she had been angry at the American and started crying in front of everyone, he wanted so much to take away the pain she was feeling and comfort her in any way possible. There was absolutely nothing Kouta wouldn't do for her right now, and he wanted so desperately to prove it.

Saya looked over at him and gazing into his eyes, saw just how genuinely concerned he was for her. She then sniffed and looked out towards the river away from him.

"Shut up, fatso." She said.

* * *

The first thing to hit me as I approached the bridge just as I was halfway up the embankment was the smell.

It wasn't the usual smell of putrefaction of a body that's been dead for a few days, but the smell of blood, excrement, and other fluids baking in the sun all day is a bad enough smell all by itself, believe me.

A big sense of déjà vu came over me again as I reached the top of the embankment and gazed out upon the bridge itself.

Oh yeah, it was just like when I first walked through the school, only worse. There was blood and body parts everywhere I looked. The whole bridge itself was now like the floor of a meat packing plant, a noisy meat packing plant too with flies buzzing everywhere, gorging themselves on the remains of the victims that had been caught out in the open. What little human remains there were left, that is.

I did a quick scan of the area, and seeing no Infected around, started to check the vehicles closest to me that looked big enough to carry six people or more. There were only four of us right now with Takashi and Rei still missing in action. But I wanted to be optimistic that we would find our missing friends, so I looked for a large sedan or van that would hold all six of us if we were able to reunite with Takashi and Rei.

Personally, an Abrams tank, or my personal favorite a U.S.M.C. LAV-25 would have been my preferred vehicle of choice.

As I searched the vehicles, I started to lose hope in finding one that we could use. In their panic, most of the cars and trucks on and around the bridge had been jammed so close together, that I would need a crane to get one clear from this jumbled mess they were all in. Either that or I would have to walk at least a mile or two to get one that wasn't wedged in like a sardine, thanks to the narrow Japanese streets.

It didn't matter much anyway. When the panicked civilians had abandoned their vehicles, those people that didn't take their keys with them, had left the engines still running for an unknown amount of time which just happened to be long enough for the engines to overheat and cause the engines to seize. There was nothing here we could use that I could see. I had already figured that would be the case before I had even set foot over here, but sometimes you just have to try anyway and hope for the best.

Not to be deterred, I began my long walk across the bridge. If there wasn't a vehicle we could use, then at least I could take a closer look and see if we could somehow cross the bridge anyway and hopefully scrounge up something useful in the process. Perhaps I could find a wheelchair or a bicycle for Shizuka to use so she didn't have to walk. Worse come to worse, I'd see if I could find a pair of shoes that would fit Shizuka's feet so she would be able to walk in relative comfort and give her blister a chance to heal.

I just wouldn't tell her the part about taking them off the corpse I had gotten them from.

As I walked through the mass of abandoned cars trying to avoid the pools of blood and body parts, I finally had to abandon walking through the middle of the bridge and decided to continue my search on one of the walkways constructed on either side of the bridge. The flies were crazy thick and I couldn't breathe without them trying to fly into my mouth, nose, and ears. Obviously, since flies eat carrion and can spread disease; this was the last thing I wanted to come into contact with, especially if the body they had just gorged on was that of an Infected person.

So I beat feet and went over the rail on the right side away from the swarm of flies, and shooed away the ones that were still on me. Fortunately, the flies were mostly interested in the smorgasbord in the middle of the bridge and left me alone after that.

From the looks of things, it had pretty much been a massacre judging from the amount of blood on the ground and the body parts lying everywhere. There were more than a few cars with their doors open and blood smeared all over the interior, which told me that some people were killed while still inside their vehicles, and in most cases, the passengers inside had been dragged out of their cars and consumed on the bridge itself. No one had been spared either as I saw the bloody remains of figures that were too small to be adults lying on the street as well.

I moved on, hoping that my trip would yield some positive results and not just have been a horrible waste of time. As far as I was concerned from what I could see though, it really seemed like a total bust.

And it didn't get any better after going about two hundred feet in, either. I hadn't noticed any movement on the bridge earlier from the road below when I first scanned the bridge, back when I was still with the group on the road. And because of the thick jumble of cars, I had missed seeing a group of Infected on their hands and knees feasting on their fellow commuters.

It was exactly as the school, complete with blood-smeared Infected and the sounds of feasting with bones breaking and flesh-tearing and everything, just like a pack of lions gorging on a freshly killed animal.

Yeah, EXACTLY the kind of escape route I wanted to bring three kids and a limping nurse through. Still, there weren't that many Infected crawling around, and I could easily handle them with my carbine. The problem was, once I started shooting, the sound would echo for miles and send our hungry friends coming in from all directions.

And even though Shizuka only had a blister on her foot, walking long distances or her having to run would make that relatively minor wound turn into something worse, if she could even escape with her foot hurting her the way it was.

Now that the whole world had gone to shit, even a minor wound or cut could result in gangrene setting in and killing a person over time without the proper medical treatment, especially if you're on the run and not able to stop. Shizuka's blister could end up resulting in her death if it got seriously infected and a fever set in. Sounds over-dramatic, but it was a real concern, and I had to take that into consideration. Something as simple as a small amount of penicillin, an aspirin, or even a clean bandage could mean the difference between life and death now, especially if you didn't have easy access to any of them.

Still, everything we needed to get to, was on THAT side of the bridge, and if we could cross here and somehow make it, we'd be closer to our goal of linking up with the other two teens and getting all of them home.

That fact alone was good enough for me and so I decided to continue onward and thoroughly check the possibility of our making a successful attempt at crossing this thing. And if the bridge ahead was clear enough to make our escape. Then I'd go back and get the kids and we'd haul ass over, even if I had to carry Shizuka across myself.

I looked over to where Shizuka and the kids were sitting and waved at them. Kouta and Saya immediately returned my wave followed by Saeko and Shizuka. They all appeared to be fine, and so as they say in the military, it was time for me to "Charlie Mike" (Continue Mission). I turned back around and moving forward, continued my recon of the bridge. It was getting late and I really needed to speed things up.

* * *

Carbine to my shoulder and eyes focused, I quietly pushed on as silently as I could, and did my best to move quickly as well without disturbing the Infected along the way.

Saya watched the man wave at her, and despite herself, had waved back. She was no longer angry anymore at the American, and the two teens had also made up earlier as well.

It HAD been a stupid thing to say, and especially to then pick a fight about it. And after talking to Shizuka-san after Saeko had regained her composure, Saya reflected on what Shizuka had discussed with her after they had finished speaking with one another, and after she and Saeko had finally apologized to each other.

Her father was absolutely NOTHING like the American that was for certain. Her father carried himself as a strong leader. Strong-willed, firm, and yet also cold in the way he behaved and in the way he treated others most of the time.

The American on the other hand was the exact opposite. He was extremely laid-back, although he did snap at them if they went too far with their shenanigans. Was always joking, and had the annoying but still likeable habit of being overly-friendly towards everyone.

Still, Saya had to admit, Shizuka's words had hit home, and Saya truly wished her father was here. He would know what to do in this crisis, and also,….

Saya felt herself getting emotional again and stopped herself before the tears began to flow.

"Papa." She thought feeling her eyes water again despite her best efforts to stop them.

"Papa, WHY didn't you come get me? I was waiting for you to save me Papa. Why did you leave me behind? I'm so scared Papa, where are you?!"

"Takagi-san?" Kouta said standing behind her.

"Saya." She said, not looking at him.

"Eh?" Kouta said puzzled.

"Call me Saya from now on. I HATE being called by my last name." Saya said, not looking at him.

"Saya." Kouta repeated, testing the sound of the name on his lips.

Saya suddenly turned around and embraced Kouta. The move had been so sudden and so unexpected that Kouta had nearly recoiled from her thinking she was about to hit him.

Instead Saya held him in a vise-like grip and started to cry on his shoulder.

Still in shock, Kouta couldn't believe what was happening, but as the girl sobbed into his shoulder, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close as she wept. It was the happiest moment of his life. The girl he had always loved was in his arms finally.

Saya wept as a single thought had finally pushed her past her breaking point and she could no longer control the pain she felt or the tears that flowed.

"PAPA, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Her heart screamed as she wept quietly on the boy's shoulder.

* * *

Shizuka looked over at Saya as she wept while Kouta held her close. She was at first concerned when Saya hadn't shown any emotion when she had first spoken to her. Yet Shizuka had hoped it would just take time for her words to break through Saya's strong outer walls before the strength of her words would finally reach her heart.

Saya was definitely different from Saeko as far as personalities were concerned. There was definitely more anger in her heart than sadness, and Shizuka was worried that the anger within her would be too strong to allow Saya to face it and she might then shut herself off from everyone.

But now as the girl wept, Shizuka was secretly relieved at the sight. Saya's anger was indeed strong, but the girl's pain had not completely hardened her heart after all.

"Hold her close, Kouta-chan." Shizuka said smiling. " And don't ever give up."

"KOUTA! SAYA! COME OVER HERE PLEASE!" Saeko yelled suddenly.

Shizuka frowned and immediately tried to stop Saeko as the two teens looked up at the sound of her voice and pulled away from each other quickly in embarrassment.

"Busujima-san, leave them alone for a moment." Shizuka scolded.

"Gomen nasai, sensei." Saeko said, not looking at her while moving into her "Chudan no Kamae" stance, her body tensed for action.

"The last thing that I wanted to do was to interrupt them." She continued as she gripped her bokken.

"However. We have company."

* * *

Takashi slowed the motorcycle to a halt along a long stretch of road running alongside the river. Rei was seated behind him and was puzzled as to why he had stopped all of a sudden. They had stopped earlier at Tokonosu Bridge, and had abandoned the thought of attempting to cross there, after realizing that getting across was going to be next to impossible with the sea of panicked people trying to cross over.

Things were barely in control at that bridge as some Infected had already infiltrated amongst the civilians, and others that were not Infected were now rioting against the police as well. Amongst all that chaos, there was absolutely no way they could cross the bridge and hope to meet the rest of their group at the specified time. So they had moved on in hopes of finding another way across the river somewhere else.

Now, for no apparent reason Takahashi had stopped the bike, and the last thing Rei wanted now was to be caught out in the open again after dark, especially after the night they had just experienced.

It had been the worst experience of their young lives Takashi thought, and both of them had barely survived it with their lives intact. They had not come out of it unscathed however, and Takashi was really worried about Rei after she was close to being nearly raped by some psychotic punk who had jumped them while they were trying to get fuel for the bike they had scavenged.

Takashi had managed to rescue Rei from the clutches of that psychopath. But Rei had been very quiet afterwards, and Takashi was worried that the emotional injuries Rei was going through might have cut deeper than the physical ones. Still, there had been no time to deal with their emotional wounds right now. There was danger all around, and Takashi was in a hurry to re-join their friends across the river.

He and Rei had both been very worried about their friends, knowing they had their own problems as well being separated from them, and having to travel in the company of that maniac Shido and his entourage.

The two teens had been traveling all night, and most of the day, stopping only to take a short rest around noon. After finding Tokonosu Bridge inaccessible, they had again sped down a long road on the side of the river, hoping to find an alternate bridge to cross, both of them becoming more and more fatigued as they rode along.

Still, it wasn't fatigue that had caused Takashi to stop the bike suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Rei asked, puzzled.

"There's a bunch of people down there." Takashi said peering at a group of people moving around about a quarter of a mile ahead of them at a slight bend in the road. A large bridge was behind them as they stood about on the road, blocking their path.

"Is it Them?" Rei asked clutching Takashi's arm tighter.

"I can't tell." Takashi replied. "They're just standing there."

From that distance, it was hard for Takashi and Rei to distinguish whether the people blocking their path were Infected or not. As far as they could tell, it seemed like a bunch of people had stopped to converse in the middle of the road.

"What do you want to do?" Rei asked. "Keep going or turn around?"

"There's no way to cross the river back the way we came from." Takashi answered, still trying to figure out what to do.

"Our best bet is that way." Takashi said pointing at the bridge. "There's nothing behind us. So we need to keep moving forward."

"But they're blocking the way." Rei said, frowning.

"Then we'll just need to bust through." Takashi said looking over his shoulder and smiling at her.

Rei stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, and then a grin formed along her face as well. The shy, quiet, indecisive boy that she had known most of her life was gone. Now the man in front of her had become so much more confident, strong-willed and BOLDER in such a short amount of time.

"I like this "new" Takashi." Rei thought.

"Let's do it!" Rei said, gripping Takashi's waist tighter.

Takashi grinning, popped the clutch, and back tire spinning, they launched forward, enjoying the breeze whipping past them as they sped along the lonely road.

* * *

It was a total waste of time, after all.

I had come across the bridge about two thirds of the length of it, past ravenous packs of Infected still gorging themselves on the remains of their victims all the while. I had to really focus on moving silently as the number of Infected steadily increased as I went by and the remains of their victims became less visible, which meant that these particular Infected on this part of the bridge had run out of food and would attack the nearest thing that sounded like a hot meal.

Moving silently is not as easy as you might think. It's not like sneaking past your mom and dad's room trying to sneak a snack out of the fridge or trying to avoid getting caught after its way past your curfew, not that I ever did those things.

But truth is, especially in the military, moving silently is WORK, especially if you're a big guy like me and you've got a heavy pack on your back. Those serving in the military and especially those going into combat, train in silent movement all the time and know all about what it requires to be done successfully. It's not something we do normally in the Fire Service unless it involves a practical joke and we don't want to get caught.

This was no joking matter, however.

Silent movement requires intense focus of your surroundings, the terrain you'll be traveling on, and even the weather. It's important to know all about the ground at your feet, whether it's slippery like mud, or loose like sand, and you can slip and fall on your butt, or is gravel-like or has a bed of dry twigs, or leaves lying over it that will make a noise as soon as you step on it and give your position away.

You also have to control your breathing as well because fear and physical exertion will make you start to breathe faster thus, making more noise and also give you away. There are a TON of factors to consider when you have to work in silence and invisibility.

Even smell is a factor as well. There are many accounts of during the Vietnamese War, that the Vietnamese were able to detect the approach of French Troops approaching their position in the jungle from long distances away, just by the smell of the soap, perfumes, and aftershaves the French soldiers used. I could go on but you get the idea.

By the time I had come two thirds of the way across, I could finally see that this bridge was a dead-end.

Apparently, as this bridge was being overrun, the local authorities or the military had used the remaining cars as a barrier on this side and had laid concertina wire for about 100 feet all across the bridge including the walkways and then closed the gates and welded them shut and then used more cars on the other side to brace the gates.

As it was, the concertina wire was more than enough to stop us cold. No way could I cut through all that with my little Gerber Multi-plier. I'd need a few Bangalore Torpedoes to get through all that crap. And I didn't have any in my pack at the moment.

I crossed over onto the other side of the bridge just the same and saw that it was no different on the other side. Not that I expected anything less anyway.

"Damn." I thought. I really hated having to go back and give the kid's more bad news. I did especially not want to go back empty-handed after my little tiff with Saeko. I swear, that young girl was really starting to get a lot bolder with me the way she had put her foot down a while ago. It was kind of cute actually, I thought.

As I looked around at the jumble of cars around me I spotted what looked like a brand new pair of white and pink sneakers lying near a mini-van.

"Might not have been a completely wasted trip after all." I thought as I headed over to them keeping my carbine's muzzle up as I approached the van. You never know what could be on the other side after all.

"Hell of a lot of trouble coming all the way out here just for a pair of Nike's though." I thought.

As I walked over to the other side of the min-van and found no Infected waiting for me on the other side, I was happy to find a brand spankin' new pair of women's Nike tennis shoes lying on the ground.

Problem was though, the original owner's feet were still in them.

* * *

And no, I don't mean that the woman that wore them was still standing there looking at me and saying. "Oh hello, sir! Fancy meeting you here."

Nor was she (thank goodness) Infected and coming at me with mouth open trying to help herself to latin take-out.

No, I mean, the sneakers were just sitting there with the remains of some woman's feet that had previously owned them STILL inside them, albeit, gnawed off at the ankles.

Even after years of seeing some pretty horrible things in my career, sometimes I surprise even myself with the words that come out of my mouth.

The first thing that came out of my mouth after seeing those two feet lying there was, "Ewwwwww."

Still, they were just what the doctor ordered, and so I reached over into my med pack on my left side, unzipped it and pulled out a pair of latex gloves that I quickly placed on my hands.

I've handled body parts without the use of gloves in the past, back when the ambulance services I used to work for when I was a rookie EMT, refused to buy us gloves. Sometimes, we had to steal a box from the hospitals we went to or bought them ourselves. This was back before the AIDS epidemic really hit hard in the 80's. After that, ambulance companies were forced to buy gloves for us and wearing them all the time whenever we made patient contact finally became the norm.

Still, even though I was not squeamish about blood and touching dead flesh, safety first you know?

After donning the gloves, I untied the woman's shoes and pulled the feet out of them placing them on the ground. I looked at the woman's feet after I had placed them on the ground still wrapped in the white socks the woman had been wearing.

If you think I felt a little bad about taking the poor woman's shoes and then leaving her remains behind without a decent burial or something, then you would be right.

I mean geez, it was messed up to say the least.

However, If these shoes helped Shizuka to be able to walk or run away in an emergency, and keep her minor wound from getting worse and developing a serious infection later. Then in truth, this victim would have contributed to saving another person's life, so I didn't feel bad about that.

It was just the thought of leaving these poor, unfortunate victim's remains out in the open after I had just scavenged the shoes .

So I took a quick look around and not seeing any Infected lurching nearby, I placed the feet together and covered them with a towel I found in the mini-van. Under the circumstances, it was the best I could do.

I then turned my attention to the pair of sneakers I had just scavenged.

The shoes were brand new, even the insole didn't have any wear on it or anything. There was a little blood on the shoes of course, so I washed that off with a bottle of water that I took from my pack, and then dried the sneakers off with a chamois that I found in the mini-van. After that, I sprayed them with a spritz of cherry-scented automobile air freshener I found in the glove box.

I held the pair of sneakers up and checked them out thoroughly.

"Good as new." I thought. "Shizuka's gonna love these." I said as I placed them in a plastic bag before I stuffed them in my pack.

Why did I put them in a plastic bag first, you ask?

Well hell, I don't want some dead woman's shoes touching my stuff.

* * *

As I put the shoes in the pack, and zipped it up, I thought I heard a faint yell over the rushing river below. I picked my head up and looked around as I grabbed my rifle and quietly moved over to the walkway on the other side.

I then looked across the river towards where the teens were, and was horrified at what I saw. I immediately started running down the walkway at a dead run, noise discipline and stealth no longer a concern.

My only priority now was getting to the kids.

But I already knew.

I wasn't going to get there in time.

Takashi felt Rei's grip on his waist tighten as they neared the small group of people in the road ahead and were finally able to distinguish the features of the people more clearly as they closed the gap.

"Takashi!" Rei screamed over the sound of the motorbike engine as she and Takashi watched the people in the middle of the road suddenly spring into action and began fighting amongst each other. At about the same time, the two teens recognized the people locked in battle ahead as Takashi then pushed the throttle to its absolute limit, the engine screaming in protest.

Some of the people in the road in front of them were their FRIENDS that they had been separated from.

AND they were under attack.

And as Takashi and Rei traveled at high speed towards the battle their friends were engaged in, hoping desperately that they would get there in time to save them, they were finally able to see the faces of the enemy that was attacking their friends as they got closer.

And they were both horrified at what they saw.

The attackers their friends were fighting desperately against were not THEM, at all.

THEY were HUMAN.

And THEY were winning.

* * *

Author's Notes:

When I had finished the rough draft of this chapter and was cleaning up the errors here and there last night, I was watching perhaps my favorite movie of all time, "The Last Samurai," which was one of the main inspirations for me as I wrote this fanfic.

In some respects there are many things in that movie that mirror my own life like actor Tom Cruise's character, although not nearly as dramatically like the warrior he plays.

However, in some ways the character he played, I was able to connect with myself in the choices I've made in life, my regrets, my sense of honor, my sense of duty, my joys, my sorrows, my achievements and my losses. Many of these will be written into the story later as "Jim" confides in his new friends later.

While still only a movie and this is only a fictional story with some of my life's experiences and personal thoughts written into it. "The Last Samurai" and my own fanfic "Last Alarm" are fairly alike in that it is the story is of one man's journey in an unknown place under conditions he cannot control and the effects the people and his surroundings have on him and also, the effect he has on the people he is with. I won't compare my story to such a well done masterpiece as "The Last Samurai."

But as ambitious as it sounds, I do hope to try to convey the same feelings and emotions that the film did in the way I'm bringing out the characters of this fanfic.

This fanfic is not about adults or children being better than one another or who is a better fighter or who is in charge or so forth. I wanted this story to be about the binding ties of friendship that unite perfect strangers who draw closer to one another as tragedy unfolds around them.

In short, it's about family.

It's something that the manga and the anime touch on, but didn't have the time to bring out. Perhaps they will, now that there is a second season coming out soon.

Anyway, the reason I brought all this out was because I wanted all of you to see where I was going with this fanfic and because I didn't want everyone to think this was just some touchy-feely type of story.

LOL. Believe me, it gets better, I hope. At least I'm trying anyway, and it won't be long before everyone starts kicking butt and taking names, so bear with me. But in the end, I really wanted to achieve something more here than just throw a bunch of words together when I decided to write "Last Alarm".

In truth, I wanted to leave something behind that I could be proud of that I could share with all of you who have taken the time to read this story. I just hope all of you will enjoy what I've written when it's finally finished.

And being as how all of you have stuck with me thus far and said such nice things about the story, I wanted to give you an idea of where this was all headed, and let you know one of the inspirations that motivated me in the making of this story that still inspires me to keep working harder to make my story better, as do all of you who have really encouraged me to keep on writing this story.

I humbly and sincerely thank all of you. Jim


	14. Chapter 13-Crossroads - Part Three

Last Alarm

Chapter 13

"Crossroads" Part Three

* * *

"Love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness."

"Their noblest, bravest acts are done for love." ― Rick Riordan

* * *

As the Contagion spread throughout the city and the chaos from the resulting panic ensued, most people that were not Infected did everything they could to save the lives of their loved ones, friends, and neighbors, as well as trying to save their own lives, as the Infected continued to swarm and overtake the populace.

Sadly however, as is common in all disasters, there are those that arise from the ensuing chaos seeking not to help others reach safety, but rather to take advantage of the chaotic situation. And with all local authorities occupied in evacuation and rescue efforts, it is these very ones that loot homes and businesses and also prey upon those weaker than themselves.

Such was the case now in Tokonosu City as a mixture of people of all walks of life and of all ages took full advantage of the ensuing chaos to act upon their basest desires, encouraged further in their acts of depravity by the fact that there was no visible authority to stop them.

And with the growing ease of each act of crime they committed and no police to stop them, the predators only got bolder, and their crimes more debauched as the blood from their victims stained the streets.

One of these small bands of predators that Saeko and her friends faced now was a motley crew made up of older teens and some young adults in their early twenties, all of them fueled by youthful rage, stolen liquor, and street drugs.

The six young men and three young women were on the crime spree of their lives with no moral values holding them back and no one of authority to stop them. Nothing was sacred and no one was spared.

And they were enjoying every minute of it.

* * *

There were nine of them, Saeko counted, looking up at them as they stood on top of the hillside looking down as Saya and Kouta hurried back to join her and Shizuka.

"Get behind me." She ordered, as Saya sat next to Shizuka and grabbed hold of her tightly. Kouta positioned himself behind Saeko and shouldered his nail rifle, backing her up.

Saeko looked up at the group of young people and tensed as five men split off from the group and approached from on top of the hill, sliding down the embankment screeching and laughing as they came brandishing their mix of homemade weapons, kitchen knives, chains, baseball bats, tire irons, and one of them carrying a machete.

They stopped for a moment, sizing up their quarry, once they reached the bottom after sliding down as the rest stayed at the top of the hill watching and laughing awaiting the show that was about to begin. All of them staring at the two teens standing before them in front of a very busty blond that was sitting huddled with a nerdy looking girl on the railing on the side of the road.

They then laughed scornfully at the sight of the chubby kid armed with some sort of nail gun, and a quiet girl armed with a wooden bokken, acting as if they could really do anything to prevent them from having a little fun with the two women behind them.

"This will be too easy." Each of them thought.

"What do we have here?" A shaven-headed punk said as he made a big show of twirling his bat as they approached the teens. "Are you babies out on a field trip?"

"Eh?" He said, egged on by his friends. "Neh, sensei."He said ,looking at Shizuka. "You taking the babies out to the museum and get lost?"

One older teen with a spiky hair cut and tattoos on his arms began to twirl his length of chain in the air attempting to intimidate the teens with the sound of it cutting through the air.

"Is that why you were crying little girl?" he said, gesturing at Saya and raising the pitch of his voice. "Are you lost and wanna go home to mama?"

"We're not on any field trip, and I'm not a baby, you jerks!" Saya yelled.

"Takagi-san, QUIET!" Saeko warned Saya as the gang of toughs jeered at Saya's act of defiance.

Saeko watched them closely, and was already forming a plan of attack as the young men approached. Their mocking Saya was only a diversion. They were intentionally trying to throw them off balance by fear and intimidation, while they expertly moved into a position best able to take her and Kouta down as quickly and as easily as possible.

"Awwwww, are you gonna start crying again, little baby?" The bald one said mocking Saya.

Saya bristled at the punk's mocking of her and stepped forward as the girls sitting on top of the hill laughed along with the ringleader, and mimicked Saya's crying earlier, and laughed even more as she reddened.

"SAYA-chan! Come here!" Shizuka said, trying to keep calm herself, as the eyes of all the men continued to stare at her. She wanted desperately to calm Saya down, and try not to inflame the gang members any further.

"Saya-chan! Come here Saya-chan! Don't cry Saya-chan! You want your boyfriend to hold you again Saya-chan? " The entire group of toughs chortled continuing to mock Saya relentlessly.

Shizuka desperately grabbed Saya's arm and forcefully pulled her back as she had finally succumbed to all the cat-calling and had begun to take another step closer in a foolish attempt to confront the toughs that were insulting her.

Shizuka had literally just saved her life by physically restraining the young hothead who was so angered by the insults that all good sense had left her.

It had been their usual tactic to begin with, that had worked so well before, by attempting to separate one of the teens from the rest and use that one as a hostage to get to the others once they captured one of them.

Saya had been an easy mark, and had fallen for the clever ploy, hook, line, and sinker. That is, until Shizuka had grabbed ahold of her and held her down, fortunately for her.

* * *

Seeing as how the plan hadn't quite worked as well this time, the man with the bat tried a different tact.

"Awwwww, your no fun sensei." He said, the smile on his face, growing bigger, but by no means friendly.

"How about you, little girl?" He said gesturing at Saeko and twirling his bat. "You wanna play with the big boys?"

Saeko's eyes narrowed slightly as she ignored the man's words and spoke to Kouta instead. The attack was about to commence, and she wanted Kouta to be ready.

"Hirano-kun." She said evenly. "No matter what happens, protect Saya and Marikawa-sensei at all costs, understand? DO NOT allow them to separate you from them, no matter what happens."

"HAI!" Kouta replied, standing in front of Saya and Shizuka, his makeshift rifle at his shoulder, muzzle up and covering Saeko.

The gang of street punks all laughed at Saeko and Kouta as the other two boys that had hung back began to walk forward as well, reinforcing the first three as the ringleader and the young women with him slid down the embankment and stood on the side of the road, ready to spring into action as well. They had easily overpowered every one of their helpless victims by fear and intimidation before, and if that didn't work, then rushing in and overpowering their victims by force and sheer strength of numbers had never failed them before either.

Still believing they were dealing with a couple of harmless high school teens, the man with the bat, no longer smiling, glared at Saeko with her bokken at the ready, and twirled his bat again as he spoke to her.

"You gonna fight us with that wooden sword, all by yourself, huh, girlie?" He asked, and then looked evilly at Kouta.

"What's the matter fatty? Not man enough to face me like a man? You gonna hide behind this skirt and let her do all the fighting?! What kind of a wussy are you? Look at you, you fat slob! Do you even have a pair?!"

Saeko could sense Kouta bristling at the man's words.

"Hirano-kun! Do NOT listen to him. He is only trying to intimidate you so they can catch us off guard. DO NOT fall for it. Protect the others!"

Still angry, Kouta stood his ground and waited as Saeko then glanced at the positions of each and every member of the street gang and then stared directly at the ringleader.

"I do not know why all of you are doing this. We have done nothing to you and there's no reason to harm us. Please just leave us alone, and let us go on our way. No one has to get hurt here."

The leader looked at Saeko and grinned evilly.

"That would be boring." he said scornfully, and then cast his gaze over at Shizuka.

"Besides we have plans for your teacher and the nerdy girl, neh, Aki? He said, looking down at the young woman standing to his left, holding a tire iron over her shoulder, who then blew a kiss towards Saya and Shizuka and then licked her lips.

Shizuka and Saya gulped, sensing the horrible danger they were in and huddled even closer.

"I do not wish to fight any of you. And I urge you to re-consider. But if you will not listen to reason, and if you mean to harm my friends, then I will have no choice but to fight you and I warn you, I will not hold back."

The entire gang laughed at hearing Saeko's word's, however, the ringleader was also tiring of this game.

"Hiroki, just kick her ass already and be done with it." He said, getting annoyed now.

"The rest of you take the fat kid out, he can't hurt you with that piece of shit he's holding, so hurry it up. I want to be off of the street before it gets dark."

The reaction by the gang of street punk's to their leader's words was immediate. The one with the bat had finally stopped resorting to diversionary tactics and opted for full violent force as he stepped forward and raised his bat, pointing it straight at Saeko as he stepped towards her.

"I'm going to take that wooden sword of yours and shove it up your ass, b_tch!" He said.

Saeko, not fazed by his threatening words, merely readied herself and spoke in a voice so calm, that it only infuriated the punk further.

"If you wish to go toe-to-toe with me then pretty boy, then by all means, please step forward. I'll dance with you." She said smiling as she gripped her bokken.

* * *

Enraged by her cockiness, the man rushed forward, followed by his fellows. The man with the bat lead the charge as he always did in a feint, hoping to draw Saeko out so the other two could flank her, while the other two behind them would quickly overpower Kouta when he tried to help his companion and then it would all be over in a few seconds.

It had worked several times before with other people that they had victimized and there was no reason to believe it wouldn't work now against such an uneven match. That had been the usual plan anyway.

Saeko had news for them, however.

Not falling for the feint, Saeko waited till they were almost upon her before she attacked.

It was indeed over in seconds. But not as the street gang had planned.

It had all happened so quickly, that it had almost seemed unreal, Kouta thought. Saeko's movements had been so quick, yet so graceful and fluid; that it seemed more like a beautiful, but deadly dance had just been performed in front of his eyes.

The leader had tried to knock the bokken out of Saeko's hand by quickly swiping his bat at it, thinking he could knock it out of her hand easily and then just push her to the ground and let the other two handle her, as he and the rest dealt with Kouta and his makeshift weapon.

As he swung at Saeko's bokken however, she parried the blow instead. And then stepped forward shoving her bokken in a powerful thrust right into the man's throat, causing him to fall backwards to the ground, dropping the bat and clutching his throat as he struggled for air.

She then turned and swung her bokken , surprising the attacker to her right armed with a large kitchen knife, and hit him with a vicious strike to the right side of his head sending him to the ground in a daze, as she then smoothly turned around to her left and took out the other punk armed with a chain with a downward strike to his forehead, sending him to the ground as well.

In only three moves, Saeko had taken out three grown armed men in less than three seconds.

* * *

She swung her bokken through the air and stared directly at the ringleader as the other two punks' that had been about to rush Kouta stepped back and away from her, wide-eyed. The three men on the ground recovering somewhat, crawled away from her as well, and struggling to their feet, joined the others, each of them beaten and bloody.

Saeko then calmly stepped back towards Kouta and the others, readying herself for the rush she knew was coming next. They had all SERIOUSLY underestimated her, and had been overconfident in their numbers and their earlier ability to frighten others into submission with intimidation. They wouldn't be so careless again.

Yelling and cursing the men who had been beaten so easily by such a small girl without even putting up a fight, the ringleader rallied his troops for the one big charge that would end it all.

"GET THEM!" He roared as they all rushed at once, screaming and yelling like banshees.

Saeko watched as all of them came rushing at her, their eyes filled with fury, all of them hungry for blood.

"Excellent." Saeko said, smiling as they came.

Takashi had the needle in the red as the motorcycle's engine screamed in protest. He had seen Saeko shatter the first attack by the three attackers, beating them into the ground and sending them limping back to join the rest of their gang. But it wasn't over by any stretch of the imagination, and it had all turned sour fast when the gang rushed the teens once again.

The next rush that came from the attackers, quickly had Saeko taking on multiple attackers all at once, and she was doing quite well too, effortlessly striking each gang member left and right with each strike of her bokken and SMILING as she did so. She actually seemed to be enjoying herself Takashi thought as a shiver went up his spine at the thought.

The same couldn't be said for the rest of Takashi's friends as Kouta, firing his nail gun with seemingly little effect, was quickly overwhelmed by a group of three teens that rushed him after the fragile stock on his nail gun shattered after he struck one of them in the face with it, and he was then tackled to the ground.

As they sped near the bend in the road, Takashi was forced to slow his bike down as they closed the distance between them, lest he lose control of the bike.

But as they came within 100 feet of the melee, he sped up, heading straight for the attackers who looked up suddenly hearing the sound of the bike almost upon them.

"REI, GET READY!" Takashi yelled.

"KOMURO!" Saeko said as Takashi plowed into the gang of punks scattering them in all directions and then he laid the bike down on the road sweeping everyone in his path off their feet.

Rei, using their forward momentum, jumped off the bike before Takashi had laid it down and slammed into a man and woman, knocking them to the ground and using their bodies to cushion her fall, knocking the breath out of them. She then knocked another teen to the ground with a vicious swipe to his face and stabbed another in the abdomen with the point of her spear as he screamed and tore the spear out of her hands as he fell to the ground.

He pulled the spear painfully out of his abdomen and then suddenly began to spasm uncontrollably much to Rei's confusion.

Rei then realized that the reason the man was spasming so horribly was because the dried blood that was on the tip of the spear from all the Infected she had killed, was now spreading through the man's bloodstream. She backed away from him and then felt someone tackle her from her left side as the girl armed with a tire iron pounced on top of her. And as they landed on the ground, she then kept trying to hit Rei with it, as she and Rei wrestled with each other rolling over and over on the ground.

Takashi rolled away from the bike and grabbing his bat, swung at a punk coming at him with a knife, and connected with the man's jaw shattering it and sending the man screaming as he spit blood and teeth fragments from his mouth.

Takashi suddenly felt something sharp rip through his jacket and he quickly turned around and swung at whoever had tried to knife him. His eyes widened as his bat struck an older girl in the face, breaking her nose and she immediately screamed as blood gushed from her nose and the space where her two front teeth had been.

Takashi hesitated at the horror of his striking a woman even though it had been in self-defense, and was then immediately knocked to the ground by the ringleader who had picked himself off the ground and hit Takashi from behind with a tire iron.

Takashi grunted as a blinding pain shot up his back and he collapsed to the ground, arching his back involuntarily from the pain.

"KOMURO!" Saeko yelled as she saw Takashi writhing in pain on the ground. Seeing an opening now that Saeko was distracted, one of the attacker's that was armed with the chain swung it at her. And as it wrapped itself around the wooden blade, the bokken was ripped free from her grasp as he yanked on it suddenly, and he then jumped forward and roughly shoved her to the ground.

Saeko sat up and turned her head in response to the sound of Shizuka's voice as the nurse screamed while some man with a shaved head and a tattoo on his face was trying to drag her away. He was having a tough time about it as Shizuka hung on the railing for dear life and was kicking at the man, trying to get away from him.

Kouta meanwhile, had broken free from the three punks who had tackled him earlier when Takashi had run them down with the motorbike and was swinging Shizuka's medical pack wildly at a couple of attacker's who were trying to get past him as he desperately tried to protect Saya.

Saya, in the meantime, was viciously slapping the man that was holding Shizuka's leg, with the nurse's shoe that had been kicked off as Shizuka was struggling against the man.

Growing extremely frustrated at being kicked and pummeled from both ends, the man violently back-handed Saya away from him. And as she fell to the ground, Kouta, shocked at seeing her injured, was immediately tackled to the ground and was then punched repeatedly by the two punks as Saeko watched horrified.

Takashi, seeing that everyone was now helpless, reached for the revolver he had placed in his belt, ignoring the pain that shot up his spine, and was horrified to not find it there. He searched around desperately looking for it and saw to his horror that it had apparently tumbled out of his belt and had fallen to the ground when he had struck the attackers with his bike.

He then finally spotted it as a man with a shaved head ran over and picked it up off the ground, and then looked directly at him.

* * *

I knew I wasn't going to be able to get to the kids in time.

After seeing Saeko taking out the first three thugs, I immediately spun on my heel and ran as fast as I could down the walkway, knowing full well I wasn't going to reach the kids in time and knowing without much doubt that it would be all over by the time I reached the end of the bridge.

Of course, I knew it was a useless effort. Not even if I was an Olympic runner that had a gallon of Red Bull injected directly into my veins did I have any hope of getting there and scaring the punks off before the kids got hurt or killed by them.

Still, I wasn't thinking of that right now. The kids were in trouble, and I needed to do something.

As I reached the halfway point of the bridge, I heard what sounded like the engine of a motorcycle coming at high speed down the road, and I stopped for a moment, as I saw two young people on a motorbike making a beeline for the group locked in battle below.

I quickly reached into a pocket of my vest for my monocular again and peered through it, and quickly recognized the two teens racing down the road. And I was both thrilled at recognizing the two riders on the bike and then just as quickly, I was dismayed.

Takashi and Rei, my two little lost sheep had returned back to the flock, looking thoroughly exhausted but otherwise, safe and sound.

But right now, they were now returning to us at the WORST possible time.

I'm pretty sure they could both see that it was Saeko and the rest, mixing it up with whoever those people that were attacking them were on the road below. And at the speed that Takashi was pushing that bike, I could see that he was fully intent on riding to the rescue and doing WHAT, I have no idea, to come to everyone's aid and put a stop to the fight somehow. I had to hand it to the two teens, their heart was in the right place, and you have to respect that kind of fierce loyalty among friends. You just don't see it as often anymore. Unfortunately, it was going to get them all killed.

Problem was, the people down there attacking Saeko, Kouta and the rest were extremely vicious. It was easy to tell that just by the fact that they were attacking a woman that was hurt and three teens for no apparent reason, and the type of weapons they had on them and the way they were using them told me that they were also playing for keeps.

And try as they might, even with her extraordinary kenjutsu skills and Kouta's makeshift rifle, there were just too many for the teenage warriors to handle, and even with Takashi and Rei charging to the rescue, it was only a matter of time before they were all overwhelmed. And I knew then that I was not going to be able to get away with just scaring the gang members off.

I was going to have to shoot to kill. At living human beings.

I was on the horns of a dilemma. No way would I be able to make it to them before it was all over, and the kids were killed. And I couldn't fire my carbine because the range was too great for me to make an accurate shot with any certainty at that range.

The longest shot I ever made with it was 300 yards with my Eotech sight. I could take longer shots with it of course, but not without using a scope which I didn't have for it anyway, and I didn't want to take the risk of taking the shot without one and risk hitting the kids or Shizuka.

The range was about 400 yards, and while it was definitely well within the range of my M24, the same problem still existed as before. The sound of the report would have me swarmed with Infected coming from all directions around the bridge at the first shot, and I'd be cut off from being able to get off the bridge the moment I fired on the attackers.

And there was also no guarantee that the attackers would be scared off before the Infected got to me either.

So it was either try to get off the bridge away from all the Infected and try to do something, which by then would be much too late. Or, pull out my M24 and open fire and then be overwhelmed by hungry Infected as I tried to ward off the attackers.

In other words, it would mean death for the kids if I did nothing, or death for me if I tried to help.

But if I did open fire, it would also give the teens a fighting chance to survive an otherwise losing battle they wouldn't be able to survive from.

I watched helplessly as Takashi and Rei suddenly slowed down the bike a bit as they approached the bend in the road, and then sped up again and plowed straight into the middle of the melee below, scattering everyone in all directions as they jumped off the bike and joined the battle.

And just like that, my decision had been made.

When it comes to long distance shooting, my younger brother Elias, is a much better shot than I am, especially with "Black Betty," the custom Police-issue sniper rifle I gave him as a gift. I used to take him a couple times to the rifle range when we first started shooting together and he would beat my grouping every time much to my embarrassment, although I was a better shot with a pistol and carbine.

Being a sniper, whether your police or military, is for all intents and purposes, an art form in precision shooting. It is a tactical skill like no other, to successfully make that one shot to take out a threat at long range without hurting anyone else. It takes a cool head, calm nerves, a steady hand, and a LOT of patience to make that one,….precise,….shot.

*"And dammit Jim, I'm a medic, not a sniper." * (Yes, I'm a Star Trek fan too.)

My buddies Andy and Pete, the two former SAS troopers on BLUE AND GREEN Team, had coached me on long distance shooting back at the range in Nevada.

And after much effort, and more rounds wasted than I care to admit to, they had gradually worked me up to being able to hit a man-size target at 500 yards.

But even then, it wasn't all that pretty.

But as I pulled the rifle out of my pack, opened up the scope caps, placed it on the railing for stability, and then peered through the scope. I had little chance to think about my lack of skill any further because now things had gotten seriously ugly as Takashi had somehow dropped a revolver on the ground as he and Rei had crashed into everyone.

And now some bald punk had turned around and grabbed it before anyone else could.

There was no time left for me to attempt to calculate an accurate solution and dial in the range or the windage on the two turrets on the scope.

My rifle was zeroed for 100 yards, which meant anything within the center of the crosshairs was toast at that range, so I would have to adjust for the increased range of 400 yards by using the reticles on the scope and guesstimating the point of impact.

Running out of time, I peered into the scope and settled one of the "hash marks" that I had pre-calculated for shooting at a range of 400 yards on the bald guy's chest and then moved the crosshairs to the right to adjust for the slow-moving breeze that was blowing sakura blossoms everywhere.

I then flipped the safety lever forward and taking a deep breath to steady myself, slowly let it out and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

Takashi watched as the punk stood up, holding the revolver in triumph and then sensing Takashi staring at him, calmly looked over at him and then pointed the muzzle of the pistol at his face. Takashi, unarmed, and still aching from the blow on his back and paralyzed with fear, could only stare in horror at the gun that was about to kill him.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, SNAP!

Takashi heard a noise like the sound of an angry hornet flying over his head as something popped on the man's chest and a small amount of blood appeared suddenly, and then the man pointing the gun at him suddenly lurched backwards and fell to the ground in a heap.

Everyone suddenly stopped moving at the sight of the man's sudden, unexplained collapse. The man who was still yanking on Shizuka's leg suddenly stopped to stare at his companion, as she continued to kick at him.

"Hiroki?" He said, staring in shock at his friend who was lying still on the ground, blood beginning to soak through his shirt, his dead eyes staring at him.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, SNAP!

Takashi heard the same noise like an angry hornet flying overhead as the man holding Shizuka's leg suddenly cried out and fell to the ground and didn't move. Suddenly free, Shizuka screamed once more and then crawled over to Saya and covered her with her body.

"Everybody get down!" Kouta yelled, the first to react to what was happening after realizing what the sound actually was.

Everyone, including the gang members hit the ground immediately with the street punks staring wildly in all directions attempting to try to spot the hidden sniper without exposing themselves.

"SOMEONE'S SHOOTING AT US!" One of the girls yelled out.

"NO SHIT! WHERE IS HE?!" The ringleader roared.

All eyes scanned in all directions searching for the hidden sniper, until the man with the machete finally spotted the lone sniper standing hunched over on the bridge, his rifle resting on the railing as he peered through the scope.

"THERE! ON THE BRID,….Aaaaah! The man with the machete said getting up to his knees and pointing the blade towards the direction of the bridge as a bullet cut through the air and hit him in the abdomen. The man doubled over at the impact, hands clutching his abdomen. He then painfully straightened up, and removing his hands, stared wide-eyed at the small wound on his abdomen as blood begin to pour from it.

Then in a final act of defiance, he raised his machete to throw it at Saeko lying nearby and gave a loud roar as he prepared to throw it, as Saeko instinctively raised her hands to protect herself.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, SNAP!

The man was cut off in mid-yell as the bullet impacted his chest and he was thrown on his back, the machete falling to the ground.

"Jimu-san." Saeko thought to herself, as she looked out towards the bridge and spotted the familiar figure of the American as he was pulling back the rifle bolt and cycling another round through his sniper rifle.

"CHIKUSHO!" One of the girls that had been about to hit Rei with a tire iron swore, as she tossed it aside with a clatter, got off the ground and ran for the revolver that the bald man Hiroki, had dropped.

"AKI, NO!" The ringleader yelled in vain.

The girl ran at a dead run straight for the pistol as Takashi looked up from the ground and watched in horror as she finally reached it and was about to close her fingers over it, when the whine of another bullet cut through the air again and the girl pitched forward to the ground, knocking the pistol away as it skittered towards Kouta.

"RUN!" The ringleader screamed as he sprinted away from the scene as a bullet screamed overhead and ricocheted off the road, near his head.

The surviving gang members dropped their weapons as another bullet whined in the air and struck a fleeing punk in the left buttock. Screaming as he fell to the ground, he then got up hurriedly, despite the pain and limped away as fast as he could, trying to catch up to the others running down the road.

For a moment no one moved, the only sound heard was the strangled moans of the man that Rei had stabbed with her spear as the Infection continued to spread through his system.

Takashi finally came out of his shock, and called out to everyone.

"Is everybody OK?" Takashi yelled. "Anybody hurt?"

There were no replies at first; everyone was still very much in shock at what had just happened. The trauma of being savagely attacked by a gang of street punks, and seeing four people shot dead in front of them, was a horror that none of them could easily get over very quickly. Saeko was the first to snap out of it after a moment.

"I'm fine!" She said finally and then ran to check on Shizuka and Saya who were both crying as they picked themselves off the ground.

"Are you hurt?" Saeko asked them.

Still too shocked to answer, Shizuka and Saya held each other as Rei rushed over to them as well.

Kouta quietly walked over to the dead woman after he picked up the revolver, and then just stood there staring at the body.

Takashi also picked himself off the ground shaking off the soreness in his back, and carefully walked over to Kouta, worried that his friend's emotional state might be too unstable for him to be using a firearm right now. He approached Kouta quietly and tried to speak calmly so as not to upset his friend any further.

"Kouta-kun. Are you Ok?" Takashi asked as Kouta stood there holding the pistol, still staring at the dead woman, and not speaking.

"Kouta?" Takashi repeated.

"Kouta-chan?" Rei asked as well, sensing the dangerous situation that might be brewing if Kouta was indeed becoming a danger to himself and everyone else now that he was holding a dangerous weapon in his hands.

Kouta looked up suddenly, his face like stone, his eyes cold as he raised the revolver and pointed it at Takashi.

Takashi stared wide-eyed in horror as once again, he stared down the barrel of the same revolver pointing at his face.

* * *

"KOUTA!" Everyone screamed in horror.

In a voice so calm, it sent a chill up his spine; Kouta looked straight at Takashi and said, "Get Down."

Takashi confused, as well as scared half to death, tried to talk Kouta down.

"Kouta-kun,….." He began, raising his hands to try to calm his friend.

"GET DOWN!" Kouta roared, as he pulled the hammer back, cocking the pistol.

Takashi dove to the ground as he suddenly heard all of the women screaming,.. "Takashi! Behind you!" and then Kouta squeezed the trigger twice at the man Rei had speared earlier, who now was completely Infected and lurching towards Takashi with arms up and hands reaching for him. Both shots hit the Infected man in the face blowing out the back of his skull, and he then crumbled to the ground.

"Double Tap, Baby." Kouta said a small smile forming on his face as he calmly put the pistol in his waist belt.

Takashi picked himself off the ground and was angrily about to yell at his friend for scaring him half to death, but he was too late.

Before he could even open his mouth to speak, Saya had already separated herself from the rest of the group and began launching a verbal barrage of angry words at the teen as Kouta cringed under the onslaught.

"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, YOU FAT BAKA?! She screeched, her face twisted in fury and turning crimson as she chewed him out.

"ANSWER ME! DO YOU THINK YOU LOOK COOL NOW CARRYING THAT STUPID GUN?! "

"YOU THINK YOUR CHOW YUN FAT NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN?!"

"YOU THINK YOU'RE THE "CITY HUNTER" NOW, YOU FAT-HEADED OTAKU?!"

"DON"T YOU EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN, BAKA!" Saya screamed as she slapped him on the head.

Takashi could say nothing as Saya continued to verbally assail Kouta and occasionally smack him on the head as his shoulders kept drooping lower and lower as her angry tongue-lashing continued.

"He'll be fine all right, IF he survives HER." Takashi thought shaking his head.

Giving up, he looked back towards his friends who were still a little shaken up, but appeared to not have been hurt too bad physically.

"Is everyone, Okay?" Takashi asked again, picking up Saeko's bokken and handing it to her.

"As well as can be expected after what just happened". Saeko said, accepting the bokken from Takashi and looking at the bodies on the ground.

"Sensei?" Takashi asked Shizuka, as she was holding Rei in a bear hug.

"I'm quite fine Takashi-kun, Don't worry." She said smiling as she rubbed Rei on the head fondly.

"I'm so glad you two are safe." Shizuka said smiling at him.

"Yeah." Takashi agreed. "I'm glad all of you made it too."

"So you were not able to cross Tokonosu Bridge I presume?" Saeko asked, walking up to him.

"No, there was no way across at all." Takashi said.

"Well, we are all glad that the both of you made it back safely." Saeko said, slightly blushing.

"Yeah," Takashi replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Busujima-sempai, I'm glad to see you made it too."

"Thank you, I'm glad to have you back Komuro-kun." Saeko said, looking into Takashi's eyes.

Rei was watching as the two teens conversed and pouted at seeing the lovey-dovey looks being exchanged between the two.

"What, about ME?" Saya asked interrupting, as she had finally stopped verbally beating Kouta to a pulp and had also intentionally interrupted the two teen's quite moment together.

"Eh? Ah,Takagi-san." Takashi said, embarrassed. "Yes, I'm glad to see you too." He said as he looked into her annoyed face.

The teens instinctively ducked as the sound of a shot from a high-powered rifle came from behind them, followed by several short bursts from a rifle on auto-fire, and then the sounds of shots from a small caliber weapon began to echo across the river.

* * *

The group immediately looked over in the direction of the bridge and were shocked to see the American standing near the railing in the middle of the bridge, firing his pistol as a SWARM of Infected were coming at him from all directions shuffling forward and relentlessly surrounding him from all sides as he continued to fire into them with his pistol.

He had obviously attracted the attention of a horde of Infected that were reacting to the sound of the shots coming from his sniper rifle as he fired upon their attackers in an effort to save their lives.

And now, he was desperately fighting for his own life, as the Infected quickly began to overwhelm him.

"JIMU-SAN! Saeko screamed as she suddenly turned away from all of them and sprinted as fast as she could, headed down the road towards the direction of the bridge.

"SAEKO!" Takashi yelled after her, as the others began calling after her as well.

"SAEKO-CHAN,STOP! IT'S TOO LATE!" Shizuka, yelled, and then looked with frightened eyes at Takashi.

Takashi met her eyes and realized that even Shizuka could see,….

The American was already doomed.

And Saeko was going to be killed too if she wasn't stopped.

"TAKASHI-CHAN, STOP HER BEFORE SHE GETS KILLED! The nurse screamed, her eyes pleading.

"SAEKO!" Takashi yelled again as he ran to his bike and raised it off the ground. He jumped into the seat, started it and then gunned the throttle.

"Takashi!" Rei yelled, as she ran towards him.

"STAY HERE! I've got to stop her!" Takashi yelled as he sped off.

The group watched him speed off trying to catch up to Saeko ,who was desperately trying to run to the bridge all by herself, ignoring the fact that it would be too late to save the man who even now, was almost already overwhelmed by the huge swarm of Infected that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

All eyes then turned to the man fighting desperately on the bridge who had suddenly stopped firing and seemed to disappear behind the bridge railing for a moment to everyone's horror, believing they had just witnessed him being killed. And then he suddenly reappeared again, with his pack on his shoulders, and raising his carbine, began blasting away at the surrounding horde pressing in on him as he tried to move forward down the walkway, shooting all Infected in his path.

It was in vain however. There were just too many Infected, and the situation was definitely hopeless.

"Jimu-san." Saya heard Shizuka say under her breath as the Infected closed in on him and his magazine went dry.

What happened next horrified them all.

* * *

No sooner had I made a quick check to make sure the street punks had turned tail and weren't coming back, than I saw that I was in trouble.

Scratch that, I was in DEEP SHIT.

I felt somebody's fingers sweep across my back, which really freaked me out to be honest, and I quickly swung around and slammed the barrel of the M24 into the side of the head of some Infected construction worker who was right behind me, and he crashed to the ground from the force of the blow.

I had figured I would be relatively safe behind the railing of the walkway from all the Infected, but somehow, he had managed to get under it, and now I saw just how quickly these things had reacted to the sound of my gunfire. They definitely had wasted no time answering the dinner bell that was for certain.

I fired at the Infected man I had just clubbed, and the top of his head disappeared from the round going through his skull. I then tossed the rifle on top of the pack and stood up and away from those pushing against the railing and fired my carbine in short bursts into them as the Infected were so close now, I really couldn't take the time for more accurate, single shot fire.

I just tried to blast them as far away from me as fast as I could. They were relentless, but I managed to knock some down before my magazine went dry. I then transitioned quickly to my Sig, and double-tapped as many as I could.

I wanted to grab my rifle and my pack and haul ass out of there which was getting extremely hard to do as those Infected that fell after being shot were replaced by three or more behind them.

Desperately, I ducked under the waving arms of one particularly relentless Infected office worker and grabbed my pack while hunched down and then shot him in the head. As he fell back, he knocked down a few others and seeing as how I finally managed to catch a break, I wasted no time and moved as fast as I could to quickly stuff the rifle back into the pack as I was quickly being surrounded by an entire horde of Infected coming my way from all directions, with some crawling underneath the railing too, further up the walkway. I then quickly changed to a full mag on my pistol, holstered it, and then changed mags on my carbine.

I then stood up and resumed fire with my carbine trying to get myself out of this mess. I had switched to the 60-round magazine I had in one of my ammo pockets made by a company called Surefire, so I wouldn't have to change mags too often as I tried to break through this friggin nightmare I had gotten myself into.

I started shooting at any and all Infected in my path, trying not to be grabbed by the ones reaching for me pressing against the railing or the ones trying to come up from behind me and also trying not to trip over the bodies that fell in the process.

I seriously had my hands full.

At this point, I had given up any hope of shooting through all the Infected in my way and trying to break through them and make a run for it. All the Infected I had passed up before when I had first walked this way were coming out of the woodwork.

What I was doing now was trying to make some headway, closer towards the other side of the river, because what I was about to do now was the only choice I had left although it was absolutely the LAST thing I ever wanted to do in my life.

* * *

Takashi slowed the motorcycle as he approached Saeko still desperately running to come to the aid of the American still shooting at THEM on the bridge. It was almost over thought Takashi, as the Infected were spilling over the railing and coming up from behind the man as he continued pressing forward shooting all the while.

"SAEKO!" Takashi yelled as he pulled alongside her. "What are you doing?! It's too late!"

Saeko said nothing in reply, and just ran faster, ignoring him.

"SAEKO!" Takashi yelled again, to no avail.

"DAMMIT!" He yelled out loud. There was no choice now. Saeko was determined to save the American, or die trying. He couldn't stop her, but perhaps together they could both accomplish what one person could not.

" SAEKO,GET ON!" Takashi roared speeding up alongside her again.

Saeko slowed as Takashi brought the bike to a halt, and she quickly sat behind him and grabbed his waist.

Takashi was about to take off again when he heard Saeko suck in her breath.

"NO." She said in horror.

* * *

Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen Saeko running desperately down the road obviously trying to come rescue me. And then I also watched Takashi immediately following after her, trying to stop her from making her obviously suicidal rescue attempt, secretly relieved that he was doing that.

And then I watched him to my chagrin, giving up on trying to stop her, and then trying to help her, come to my aid.

"SON OF A,…..!" I yelled in frustration, cutting myself off before I could say the whole thing.

And I knew that right now nothing would stop either of them from trying to rescue me even if it cost them their lives.

When I was still a fireman, I could never have lived with myself if any of the guys had gotten hurt or killed over me. They were my brothers, and we took care of each other, even when we got on each other's nerves. And I never wanted them to sacrifice themselves to save me if I ever got into trouble.

It was the same with these young teens and their nurse, and like my buddies, no way did I want them hurt or killed, especially trying to help me. But now it looked as if these two young people were determined to sacrifice everything to save my life at any cost. And I couldn't let that happen.

I had resolved within myself to get them home or die trying.

It didn't look like I was going to be able to get them home after all.

But just because I had failed them, didn't mean that I was going to let them get killed in a useless attempt to rescue me.

No man who loves his children wants to see them get hurt. Of course, these weren't my children, but it didn't matter. No self-respecting adult would want anyone getting hurt or killed trying to save him, much less a bunch of children he cared about and who had so much more to live for.

I had really come to care about them as if they were my own in the short time I'd been with them, especially the quiet, raven-haired one who had boldly told me not to come out here in the first place.

"I should have listened to you, sweetie." I thought, as I fired the last few rounds out of my magazine, and then heard that awful sound of the bolt finally slamming on an empty chamber.

No matter how fast I could reload or how much ammo I used, I knew it was a losing battle. I had merely bought myself some time and had gained some ground for a desperate plan that I seriously doubted that I would survive from. But now, there was no choice and no time, and keeping those two from losing their lives needlessly depended on my following through on my desperate gamble.

"_When faced with death, none of us know what we will do until it's staring at us right in the face."_

"_We all react differently to fear. Each of us either succumbing to it, or in some cases, from somewhere deep inside of us, some will react with a strength they didn't even know they even possessed, and will choose to face it, sometimes even defiantly."_

"_And when the lives of others are at stake, sometimes, just sometimes, some of us will go above and beyond for those they may not even know, but whose lives are precious nonetheless, and they will make the ultimate sacrifice, so that others may live."_

I dropped my carbine to my side, letting it hang on its sling and then quickly straddled the railing of the bridge and climbed over, hanging on the side of the bridge, and staring at the rushing river below.

"_I had always hoped that when my time had come, I would be able to face it with dignity and courage, no matter how afraid I was or how desperately I wanted to go on living."_

"_I hoped that in the end, no matter what, that I would do the right thing."_

I looked back towards the road, and saw Shizuka and the rest of the kids staring at me in shock as they watched me hanging precariously off the bridge.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you home kids." I said, looking at them for perhaps the last time.

"_I never wanted fame or glory. It was never about that."_

"_I believed in what I did, with all my heart."_

"_I had only hoped that my life would not have been a tragic waste when my time had finally come. That all the pain and sacrifice I had made in my life wouldn't be for nothing."_

"_That I wouldn't have just been a mere faceless shadow in the crowd that people had barely noticed was there, and all too easily forgotten."_

"_I always hoped that in the end, my life had been worth something,…..had MEANT something,…. after all."_

I then cast my gaze over towards where Saeko and Takashi were, as Saeko suddenly looked up at me and met my gaze.

Saeko Busujima, age seventeen, the warrior princess, a credit to her family and her heritage, fierce and courageous in battle, and yet such a kind, sweet, caring young woman.

The daughter I had always wished for.

The one I, I would never have.

And nonetheless, the one that I was now going to do what I must so that she would live.

"_Those of us who choose to make that ultimate sacrifice for the ones we love and care about knowing that our loved ones will live because of it, makes the sacrifice even more worthwhile."_

"_But it doesn't make the parting any less painful."_

Saeko looked directly into my eyes, and realized what I was about to do.

"I'm sorry, baby." I said.

And as I felt strong fingers clutching at me, I let go of the railing.

"_Live and be happy, Saeko-chan."_

And as I fell, the last thing I heard was a scream as I plunged into the frigid water. And then all I could hear after that was the roar of the river in my ears as I sank into the rushing waters like a stone, and the light disappeared around me.

"_Mom, Dad, and especially you my brother. I love you all."_

"_I'm so sorry."_

"_Please forgive me."_

* * *

Saeko stared in disbelief as she saw the American hanging off the bridge as the Infected closed in around him. He then looked directly at her, and for a brief moment, their eyes met.

There was no fear on his face.

A look of intense sadness was the only thing that she saw in his eyes, and then his lips moved, speaking directly to her.

Saeko could not hear his words because of the loud rush of the river, but as his lips moved they seemed to mouth the words, "I'm sorry" in English.

And then she watched him in horror as he let go of the railing and disappeared into the water below.

Saeko thought she heard an intense screaming coming from somewhere far away, seeming to rise in pitch, and never end.

She wouldn't realize until much later that the voice that she had heard screaming.

Was her own.

Author's Notes:

* * *

UPDATED 4-10-2013

I had to give myself a break and hold off on the Author's Notes because it was pretty late when I finished polishing up the chapter and posted it, and I had to go on shift the next day.

I'm currently writing these notes now that I'm on a break at work. We finished everything we needed to do today and I still have 15 hours to go on my shift so I'm using the extra time I have to finish this part up.

First,my sincerest thanks to you all for continuing to hopefully enjoy reading my fanfic. And a special thanks to all of you who have written a review.

I always worry that my story might be boring my readers, so I try to make each story a little better than the last which is not easy to do. This writing stuff is HARD.

I think running into a fully-involved structure fire is easier honestly, but I admit, I'm still having a lot of fun writing it, and I hope all of you are enjoying the story.

Although I did have some concerns when I first began to write this story.

Saeko, Rei and Rika are by far, the more popular characters of HOTD.

Especially Saeko, and as I wrote this story, I was concerned with how everyone would react to her displaying any emotions other than fearlessness and bloodlust as you see in the manga and the anime.

The idea was never to make the characters that everyone loves into something less than what they are in the original series, but I did want to humanize them a bit more.

In a world like the one the HOTD series portrays, the characters have to harden themselves to be able to deal with the things going on around them, but people don't need to be so stone cold that NOTHING affects them.

So I decided to try to have "Jim" and Saeko bond a bit more like father and daughter as well as all of the teens eventually see themselves as a family trying to survive, rather than just a bunch of strangers thrust together.

And yes, I intentionally wanted to have the characters Jim and Saeko to bond as father and child.

The inspiration for Jim and Saeko bonding as father and daughter came from another anime and manga from the "City Hunter" series called "Angel Heart."

It is the story of a young teen who was trained to be an assassin, and is eventually adopted as his daughter after the girl is given a heart transplant using the heart of the woman he loved. It's a great story. Check it out.

But no, Saeko isn't going to be made into a cry-baby that can't do anything without Jim around. But they do become closer than the rest, because later, certain "trust" issues are going to spring up again.

And later, Jim, Saeko, and Rika will have their own story to tell.

Last Alarm was a story that I wanted to make that used some of my true life experiences and personal thoughts in the story, and was always meant to be a fictional story of the heart.

I have read some great fanfics, but I'm afraid that when it comes to writing, I can only do a decent job on something I'm familiar with, so trying to get too creative with my character would have been more of a problem down the line..

For example, I studied Togakure Ryu Ninpo many years ago, but since there weren't any actual classes teaching it back then, was never able to be a full-time practitioner, so I've forgotten a few things about swordplay and taijutsu,

Back then,mostly all I could do was just read Stephen K. Hayes and Maasaki Hatsumi Sensei's books, and then practice on my own.

The reason I bring this up is because "Last Alarm" was never meant to be a hack and slash type of fanfic. Kenjutsu is an awesome art, and since I was so rusty, I watched "13 Assassins" and "Zatoichi" for inspiration on writing Saeko's fight scene.

Problem is, in kenjutsu, unlike in the "Highlander" series, which I'm also a fan of, the idea is to NOT cross blades but to quickly cut your opponent in one strike.

So I was stumped for about 3 days on how to write Saeko's fight.

So I went for realism and she kicked major butt in 3 moves just like a true sword expert would. What can I say? She's bad-ass.

LOL.

Actually it was only 2 days to finally figure out her fight.

The hardest part of this entire chapter was writing the bad guys scene and their dialogue and that took a whole day by itself.

The reason for why THAT took me so long to write is because everyone who knows me, knows I'm a nice guy.

Trying to write this story from the evil guy's perspective is pretty tough, and even then, as far as evil gang members go, these "punks" in chapter 14 sound pretty tame, actually.

And just for the record, I HATED writing Shido's thoughts and dialogue in "A House Divided." I felt so yuck afterwards.

It's like comedian Ron White says in his comedy act. "Things that may you go,...BLECH!"

Anyway, I'll get used to it because Shido makes his appearance again and again later.

Like I said, I can only do a halfway decent job of writing, if I'm familiar with what I'm talking about, so trying to make Jim into a teenager, thats good with firearms and swords, and is a guy that does everything right and falls in love with any of the three popular heroines or even Shizuka for that matter, is a stretch of the imagination I would have NO idea on how to put onto paper.

I wouldn't even know where to begin, since I stopped being a teenager over 30 years ago.

So, I resorted to having my character be a mirror image of myself. Older, more experienced, a little wiser, and a father figure, vs. a young, studly fella who does everything right and has girls falling all around him.

Of course Rika is the most beautiful cop I've ever met, so we'll see what happens when they meet. :P

SPOILER ALERT.

Jim's not dead. Chapter One kinda spoiled it anyway, but I thought I'd just make it official.

I'll say this though. Jim's gonna wish that he HAD died when Saeko gets her hands on him for scaring her like that.

It's gonna hurt, I'll say that much. :P

And yes, Rika makes her appearance soon back at the airport and meets a certain former SAS friend of mine from BLUE Team.

There will be a few times as the story goes along that Jim has to seperate from the teens and they have to carry on without him.

So we'll see how that all works out with the teens dealing with his "Loss" and the later when he is forced again a couple more times to leave them so they won't be killed as Shido's "army" and some other antagonists come after them.

We haven't seen the last of the street gang believe me.

Anyway, Thanks again for ya'll's support.

I really appreciate all the kind words and drop me a PM, whenever you have a question or a suggestion.

By the way, my sincerest thanks to Dante's Disciple, who suggested to me the perfect theme song for the scene were Saeko tries to run to save Jim and he plunges into the river to keep her and Takashi from getting killed trying to save him.

It's the theme song from the popular video game "Dead Island."

I've been listening to a LOT of music to help me write this story, mostly Kenji Kawai stuff, and this theme really fits that scene.

I highly recommend reading that scene along with that music.


	15. Chapter 14-Crossroads Part Four

Last Alarm

Chapter 14

"Crossroads" Part Four

* * *

Takashi stared in horror as he watched the American desperately fighting against what seemed like an entire army of THEM on the bridge as they quickly closed in on him, leaving the man nowhere to run. Takashi could see that it was now far too late to even try to attempt a rescue. There was no doubt in his mind at all that now the man was doomed, and that he and Saeko would never be able to get there in time before the horde of Infected finally overwhelmed him and he would disappear underneath a wave of THEM and be torn to pieces.

Saeko however, refused to quit her desperate race to try to rescue the American despite Takashi's loud cries for her to stop. Takashi already knew in his heart that the man would be dead before they even got close to the bridge, but Saeko seemed not to care that the situation was indeed hopeless, and only ignored him and ran even faster, leaving him behind.

Cursing under his breath, and knowing that he very well couldn't leave Saeko to continue on all by herself, no matter how suicidal the attempt would be for the both of them, Takashi sped up until once again, the bike was alongside her.

"Saeko! Get on!" Takashi yelled as he pulled up next to her.

Only then did Saeko stop running, and jump on the bike. And as Takashi felt her grabbing his waist as he throttled up, he suddenly heard Saeko suck in her breath.

"NO!" She gasped, as Takashi quickly looked up at the American on the bridge who had by now apparently run out of ammunition and had climbed over the railing, and was now precariously hanging off the side of the bridge with nowhere else to go.

Suddenly, the American looked directly at them, his lips moving, as if he were speaking to them, words that neither one of the teens could hear over the loud rush of the river. And then as some of THEM began to clutch at his clothing, he let go of the railing and plunged straight into the rushing water, forty feet below.

And vanished.

* * *

Saeko screamed as the river seemed to just literally swallow up the man as he fell, and then Takashi felt her lay her head on his back, as she began to cry uncontrollably.

Takashi winced at Saeko's anguished cry, and felt his own heart being torn at the sight of their friend falling to his death. The man had risked his life to save theirs when the gang had attacked and gained the upper hand, despite his and Rei's attempts at a rescue. And despite the danger of the Infected all around him, he had fired his rifle and had neutralized the threat and sent their attackers running.

"He had to know that the shots would attract THEM to him." Takashi thought as he stared at the spot where the man had disappeared. "And he took the shot anyway, knowing he was doomed as soon as he did it."

"And we couldn't do anything to help him when he needed US." Takashi thought, as he slammed his fist on top of the fuel tank in frustration.

"But there might still be a chance he survived the fall." Takashi thought suddenly, a small glimmer of hope surfacing.

"And if there was a chance he HAD survived, then I have to at least try and help him if it's still possible." Takashi thought.

"Saeko! Hang on!" Takashi yelled as he hit the throttle and the bike flew forward as they sped towards the bridge.

"Takashi, he's gone!" Saeko said, in obvious despair.

"Don't give up yet Saeko! He might still be alive!" Takashi yelled over the scream of the motorcycle engine.

Saeko gripped Takashi's waist as they sped towards the bottom of the bridge and then passed underneath it scanning the surface of the water, frantically searching for any sign of the American on the surface.

"DO YOU SEE HIM?!" Takashi yelled over the whine of the motorcycle engine as they passed underneath the bridge and then slowed down once they had reached the other side, so they could scan the water's surface.

"NO! I DON'T!" Saeko yelled in response. " HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN SWEPT FURTHER DOWNSTREAM! PLEASE KEEP GOING TAKASHI! HURRY!" Saeko yelled, her voice sounding all the more desperate, almost as if she were panicking, Takashi thought grimly.

For as long as he had known her, Saeko had always been cool, calm, and collected in the presence of everyone at school, and as far as he could remember, Saeko had NEVER displayed such signs of anxiety before for ANY reason.

As they sped along the road searching intensely over the surface of the rushing river and spotting no sign whatsoever of the American, Takashi was beginning to seriously doubt that there was any chance of finding the man alive after all. And any lingering hopes that they were going to find him, alive or dead, began to seriously wane once they reached the next bridge over a mile away.

After scanning the waters there, Takashi's hunch that the search was now becoming hopeless were all but confirmed, as with each passing minute, the man's hopes for survival decreased. Despite his doubts, Takashi drove the bike onwards to the next bridge two miles away, with the same results.

"He couldn't have been swept down this far." Takashi thought, as they searched for any sign of the American and found nothing. "The river is not flowing THAT swiftly. We need to circle back around; we may have just missed something."

"WHY ARE YOU STOPPING?!" Saeko yelled undoubtedly panicking now, as Takashi slowed and then stopped the bike underneath the third bridge.

"Saeko! Calm down! No way he could have traveled this far! We need to double back and check again! Takashi yelled, trying to calm her down. "He might have made it to the other side of the river, back the way we came!"

"She's really beginning to come unglued." He thought as he turned the bike around. "This really isn't like her at all."

"But, you don't know that for sure!" Saeko began to protest, as Takashi increased speed, and they began heading back upriver. The pressure of her grip around his waist increased also as they sped along.

"TRUST ME, SAEKO!" He yelled.

"But." She said, her voice sounding extremely dejected.

"SAEKO, JUST KEEP LOOKING! WE'LL FIND HIM!" Takashi yelled over the roar of the bike engine as they raced alongside the road. Takashi honestly didn't have any faith in his own words however, and was merely trying to keeps Saeko's spirits up as it seemed that she was extremely distraught over the American's death more so than everyone else.

But as each minute passed, the chances that the American had not drowned decreased even more, and in his heart Takashi now truly believed that the man was already dead.

* * *

"THERE! OVER THERE! TAKASHI, LOOK!" Saeko yelled suddenly, and began pointing over his shoulder at a shape being tossed about on the surface of the water that seemed to be hung up on one of the pillars underneath the second bridge they had passed earlier.

Takashi stared at the object that seemed to be bobbing up and down from all the turbulence being churned up by the force of the water hitting the support pillar. From this distance he couldn't tell WHAT it was, being buffeted by the water.

But if it was the American underneath the surface, then It looked like he had been swept along by the current after his plunge off the first bridge, and then somehow had managed to get hung up on one of the support pillars underneath the second bridge downstream from where he had fallen. Fortunately for him, it was one of the pillars closest to shore that he was hung up on, and it was possible that they might be able to reach him if it wasn't already too late.

"IS IT HIM?!" Takashi yelled as he sped up again.

"I CAN'T TELL! Saeko said, her voice beginning to crack a little as her grip got even tighter on his waist. "HURRY TAKASHI, HURRY! She yelled, as he throttled up.

"She's REALLY scared now." Takashi thought. And as if to take away any measure of doubt about Saeko's beginning to come unhinged, she started to yell again, and her voice was unmistakably panicked now.

"TAKASHI, HURRY! PLEASE! HE'S DROWNING!" She screamed.

Takashi pegged the needle in the red as they flew towards the bridge. And as they finally approached the bottom of the bridge near where the American's body was hung up, he slowed as they came closer. And as he approached could now definitely see that what was bobbing in the turbulence was indeed the top of the American's tan-colored pack, being buffeted by the turbulence of the water hitting the pillar. All Takashi could see though was the pack itself, which meant the man must be underneath the waves, and might be unconscious and drowning if he wasn't dead already.

Before he could bring the bike to a complete stop however, Saeko jumped off of the bike, tossing her bokken aside and was undoubtedly about to try to run down the small embankment towards the water. Takashi sensing what she had planned to do, grabbed her, trying to keep her from running down into the river in her panicked state and trying to rescue the man by herself, and risk getting washed away as well.

His clumsy attempt at stopping her only succeeded in knocking her off balance, and she fell to the ground. Takashi then immediately jumped off the bike and letting it crash to the ground, dove for her as she struggled to get up and flattened her as she struggled against him.

"Saeko! STOP! " Takashi yelled as she tried to get off the ground.

"GET OFF ME!" Saeko screamed.

"DAMMIT SAEKO, STOP IT! YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! IT'S MUCH TOO FAR TO DO IT BY YOURSELF! WAIT, DAMMIT!" Takashi yelled as he hung on to Saeko as she struggled against him, in complete panic now.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO! TAKASHI! HE'S DYING! PLEASE! Saeko screamed crying hysterically, as Takashi roughly yanked her up to her feet and then shook her.

"SAEKO, SNAP OUT OF IT!" He yelled as he shook her trying to snap her out of her panic.

Saeko looked at him, eyes streaming with tears as he tried to reason with her." If she doesn't snap out of it." Takashi thought, "We're ALL going to die right here and now."

"I CAN'T HELP HIM WITHOUT YOU SAEKO! I NEED YOU TO CALM DOWN, AND HELP ME, ALLRIGHT?!" Takashi yelled as Saeko finally seemed to have regained some of her composure and nodded her head, as tears still fell from her face.

"He's too far away for only one of us to rescue him! So when we get in the water I'll need to hold on to you! Just grab my hand and then reach for him! BE CAREFUL! The waters very swift, so reach out, grab him and I'll pull you both in. GOT IT?" Takashi yelled, hoping that Saeko had regained enough control to help with the rescue effort before the American really DID drown.

Saeko nodded her head and grabbed his hand as they walked into the freezing water almost up to their waist, 30 feet from shore. With Takashi acting as an anchor, Saeko held on to him with one hand and tried to reach out with the other, attempting to grab one of the straps hanging on the bobbing pack and then pull the man in.

They were still too far away, however.

* * *

"KOMURO! Saeko yelled, her voice no longer panicked, but still very much afraid. "We need to get closer! We're still too far away from him!

"The water's too swift Saeko!" Takashi protested over the roar of the river. He could feel the current pushing against them so strongly now, that if they moved any further THEY would be swept away in the rushing waters too.

"PLEASE, JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE TAKASHI!" Saeko yelled, digging her feet into the mud, pushing away from Takashi and forcing him further into the water.

"DAMMIT, SAEKO! YOU'RE GOING TO GET US KILLED TOO! STOP IT!" Takashi yelled beginning to panic himself, as his feet began to slip on the soft mud and he felt the strength of the current lifting him as they moved further into the water up to his chest now. He was now VERY seriously afraid that Saeko's efforts to save the man were going to end up in ALL of them being washed away and drowned as he struggled against her.

"SAEKO, STOP!" He screamed in panic, as she made one last desperate lunge that nearly made him lose his balance.

Saeko reached the pack on her desperate lunge and by some miracle, managed to wrap her fingers closed over one of the straps and desperately held on. She then turned towards Takashi and yelled. "I HAVE HIM, TAKASHI! PULL!"

Takashi turned around and began the difficult task of pulling all three of them back to shore, slipping a bit on the slippery bottom at first, but somehow managed to stay upright and then gave a powerful heave, feeling resistance at first from whatever the man was hung up on.

But then as he and Saeko both pulled with all their remaining strength, Takashi finally felt the man pull free, and he then began pulling Saeko and the American away from the river's strong current as he dragged them all to shore.

But as soon as they reached shallow water Takashi felt that something was wrong, and the moment he walked out of the water and onto the shoreline, he then heard Saeko cry out in anguish once more. And as he looked back at her, his heart dropped at seeing what had upset Saeko so much as she fell to the ground, still hanging on to one of the straps of the pack.

Takashi dropped to his knees right beside her and held Saeko in his arms as she wept bitterly.

It was only his pack that they had found, and nothing more.

Takashi continued to hold Saeko in his arms as she wept uncontrollably, and the drops that fell from his face now were no longer just water from the river, as his own eyes began to burn from the loss of their friend.

"OJI-SAAAAAANNN!" Saeko's anguished cry echoed loudly underneath the bridge and over the roar of the river, as the water itself kept flowing past, washing away all traces of their friend.

And all hope as well.

* * *

"Can you see them?" Saya asked Rei, as everyone looked down the road past the bridge where the two teens had stopped to search for the American. And after apparently not finding him there, they had sped off and traveled further up the road searching for the man downstream.

"No, they're too far away." Rei replied, growing more worried as each minute passed.

"Everyone, if you don't mind, I'd like for us to move down the road a little further away from here please." Shizuka said, as she bent down to grab her shoe and then began to walk towards them, limping slightly.

"Sensei, what's wrong with your foot?" Rei asked slightly alarmed, as she suddenly noticed the large Band-Aid on the nurse's right foot. Between all that had happened between the fight with the street gang and the spectacle of watching the American fighting for his life and then leaping off the bridge, Rei had not noticed that the nurse had been injured until now.

"Oh, it's allright, it's just a blister from walking on these shoes for so long after we left the bus this morning." Shizuka replied.

"Does it still hurt?" Saya asked, concerned about the nurse aggravating her injury further by attempting to walk again. "Maybe we should just wait here till they get back."

"It doesn't hurt so badly without the shoe being on, and I just want to move up the road a little bit." Shizuka said, motioning them forward a little urgently, it seemed.

"Why?" Rei asked, still puzzled.

"I think it would be safer to get away from this area and truthfully, I really want to just get away from these bodies." Shizuka said, looking Rei in the eye.

Rei looked around at the four bodies lying on the ground and nodded her head. Between the chances of the gang members coming back for some payback, and the creepiness of sitting there amongst four dead bodies, being anywhere else but here was beginning to sound like a good idea after all.

"You're right sensei, let's leave NOW." Rei agreed.

"Just a minute." Saya interrupted as they had turned to leave. "You know, we really need to search these bodies first, and see if we can find anything on them that we can use." She said, a scowl on her face as she looked over the figures lying still on the ground.

Kouta looked over at the bodies and nodded his head. "Takagi-san is right; there might be something on them that we can use, like a knife or some small weapon, perhaps."

"I told you to call me Saya, baka." Saya said grouchily.

"Well, who wants to search them then?" Rei asked frowning and shaking her head at the other two teens.

She had already searched the bodies of two police officers during the night earlier, and had scavenged the revolver that Takashi had been using. But she really didn't want to go through that ordeal again and have to search these people.

She doubted there would be anything useful on their person anyway, other than street drugs or other drug paraphernalia, if anything. And an accidental needle stick from a dirty needle while searching in someone's pocket was none too appealing either.

There were no immediate volunteers in response to Rei's question.

Saya sighed and then gave up. It really was a good idea, but not one she was eager to carry out either.

"Forget it." She grumbled. "Let's just grab whatever weapons we can find and move on before those jerks come back."

The idea that the street gang would return despite four of their number lying dead on the ground had not occurred to any of them until Shizuka had mentioned it. And with that possibility in mind, they were now more anxious than ever to distance themselves from this section of the road.

Kouta immediately pulled his revolver out from his belt and holding it in both hands, scanned the area around them and in the direction the street gang had fled, keeping a sharp eye out in case they were attempting to return.

"Make it quick." He said, the tone of his voice deadly serious.

Saya rolled her eyes and wanted to tell him off for having the nerve to give her orders, but let it go.

"Fatty's right, we need to move NOW." She thought, and then quickly picked up the machete dropped by the man the American had shot twice. She grabbed it trying hard not to look into the dead man's eyes that were half-closed, seemingly to be staring at her.

Unlike what is pictured in all the movies where a person is killed and the actor playing dead has his eyes and mouth closed to simulate death, the real truth is, when a person dies, all muscle action ceases and all muscles and joints relax. And so the Hollywood myth where an actor whose character has died and has his eyes and mouth closed or can have his eyes closed dramatically by another actor is pure fantasy.

The true face of death is a haunting mask where the eyes cloud over, and seem to stare blankly into space while the jaw muscles relax and the mouth drops open in mute protest. And no amount of pushing the eyelids closed or closing the jaw will change anything.

Saya shivered at the image of the dead man staring at her as she grabbed the machete and then picked up the tire iron as she quickly moved back to where the rest had gathered, as Kouta covered them.

"What do we do with all these extra weapons?" Rei asked, as she held up a bat, chain, and a couple knives that the gang had dropped during their hasty retreat.

"Throw them in the river." Kouta replied, not taking his eyes off the road behind them. "I don't want to leave anything behind that those people or someone else can use against us later."

"That fat otaku shows good sense every now and then." Saya thought, as she threw the tire iron into the river and then wielded her machete.

Rei had already retrieved her spear after throwing away the chain into the river. She then held up the bat and the two knives that were left.

"Anyone want one of these?" She asked, looking at the rest of the group.

"I'll take a knife." Kouta said, as Rei handed one over to him and threw the other into the river with a splash.

"I'll take the bat." Shizuka said reaching for it.

"Are you sure, sensei?" Rei asked a little wary, as she handed the bat over. It seemed quite unusual that the quiet, gentle nurse would be asking for a weapon, even after everything that had just happened.

"Hai." Shizuka replied as she tested it out, although NOT using it as a weapon like Rei had thought, but instead she began using the bat as a cane, supporting her weight while she walked.

Rei looked at her and was about to protest that the intended purpose for keeping the bat was so it could be used as a weapon, but then shook her head, and then moved up to walk alongside her as they all started walking down the road with Kouta watching their rear as they moved.

* * *

"Sensei, I wanted to ask you, why did all of you leave the bus? Did something happen?" Rei asked, still puzzled as to why everyone was here on foot instead of riding in the mini-bus.

"That psycho Shido is WHAT happened." Saya snorted in disgust, before Shizuka could answer. "After you two bailed out, he went all cult leader on us and even tried to sneak up on Jimu-san and kill him in the middle of the night. Then he tried to force Marikawa to stay with them against her will. We left before he and his bunch started thinking about making human sacrifices."

"SHIDO?!" Rei said aloud. She knew the man was devious and capable of doing almost anything. But being capable of brainwashing, kidnapping, and MURDER? Rei was extremely grateful that she and Takashi had left the bus before things had gotten that bad.

"So how long have all of you been on foot?" Rei asked .

"We left over six hours ago now." Shizuka replied. "My foot began to hurt really bad awhile ago, and we stopped to rest for a moment. Jimu put a bandage on my foot and then left. We've been here for the past hour or so."

"That's another thing I've been meaning to ask you, WHY did he leave all of you alone unguarded by yourselves. And WHAT was he doing on the bridge ALONE in the first place?" Rei asked confused.

"Jimu_" Shizuka began, and then hesitated for a moment, before continuing.

"Jimu went to see if he could find a car that we could use to drive around in, and he also wanted to see if we could cross the bridge there to the other side." she said gesturing at the bridge.

"ALONE?! With all of THEM moving around up there?" Rei said shocked. From all the Infected that she could see moving on the bridge, even a blind person could tell such an attempt would have been suicidal.

"Well, you actually couldn't see anything moving up there at first." Shizuka explained and then thought for a moment. "But when he finally arrived up there, SURELY he MUST have seen them then." She thought.

As if she were reading her thoughts, Saya spoke up then. "He couldn't have seen them from down here when he left. But he HAD to have seen them when he arrived."

"So why didn't he turn back, once he saw all of THEM moving around up there?" Rei asked, looking at Saya, a puzzled look on her face.

"I don't know." Saya said frowning. "Unless he thought we could make it to the other side by sneaking past THEM."

"That's an awfully big risk." Rei said, wrinkling her brow. "Why would he think that was even worth trying?"

"Because he thought like the rest of us that you and Komuro would already be waiting for us on the other side." Kouta said, his voice low, as if he were carefully choosing his words as he spoke. "And he wanted to get to the both of you as soon as possible. Just like the rest of us did."

"That still doesn't make sense." Rei said. "Even if that were the case, why risk taking such a dangerous route, when all of you could have tried another route downstream."

"Because I believe, he must not have been able to find a car." Saya said aloud." And he didn't want Marikawa-sensei to have to walk on her foot more than she had to. He must have been looking for something else we could use as transportation. And if that didn't work, logically he would have tried to see if at least we could get across without being detected by THEM."

"And if there was no way to get across then he said he would have then tried to get her some shoes as a last resort because the shoe's she's wearing aren't made for walking." Saya said, her eyebrows frowning as she pondered over the possible reasons for the American's actions.

Shizuka lowered her head, embarrassed at hearing Saya talk about her injury and the possible explanation as to why the American had put his life at risk on such a dangerous task. It was then that Shizuka began to feel a wave of guilt wash over her as she began to truly believe in her heart that she had been the whole cause of all this trouble.

"Gomen nasai." She said quietly.

* * *

Rei cast a nasty look over towards Saya as the teen suddenly realized just how thoughtless her words must have sounded.

"Eh? Gomen nasai, sensei. I didn't mean it THAT way. It's not your fault, really. I'm sorry." Saya said.

"No, you're right. He WAS worried about me and my having to walk too far. I'm sorry, but I need to sit down." Shizuka said sadly as she limped to the railing and sat down.

They had walked about 200 feet away from the spot where they had left the bodies still lying on the empty road, and Shizuka wanted to rest her aching foot that was now beginning to bother her again.

"Sensei, are you all right?" Rei asked, worried.

"I'm fine Miyamoto-san." Shizuka replied." My foot still hurts a bit, that's all."

"That's not what I mean." Rei asked, looking at the nurse concerned that Saya's thoughtless remark may have caused irreparable harm.

"I'm fine, really." Shizuka replied smiling slightly. "It really is just that my foot aches a bit."

"Please rest then Sensei." Kouta said, as he still faced the road behind them. "We'll protect you."

"I know you will, Kouta-chan." Shizuka said, smiling at him as well.

"My, he's gotten so brave and confident in such a short time. Yesterday he acted like such a scared little boy. Now look at him." Shizuka thought. "He's really beginning to act like a man."

"They've been gone a long time." Rei said, beginning to grow worried after they had rested for a few minutes. "Do you think they've found him yet?"

"I don't know." Shizuka said worried as well. "He might have floated far downstream and they're still trying to get to him."

Shizuka however, was only trying to encourage the others not to worry. In her heart, there was little doubt that the man had indeed drowned, and she was steeling herself for the moment when the horrible truth was finally revealed.

Shizuka knew that when it was finally confirmed that the American had indeed drowned, then she would then have the sad task of trying to comfort the young people around her. After all that had happened, they would be sure to have a hard time struggling with the death of the American whom all of them had viewed as a friend, and whom all of them tragically witnessed dying before their very eyes.

Shizuka was especially concerned for Saeko, who had become quite emotionally attached to the man, and whose death would definitely hit her hardest of them all.

"Don't worry everyone." Kouta said, the tone of his voice sounding extremely confident in his words."Men like him are trained to survive anything. He'll be all right."

Rei nodded her head, but she was still worried nonetheless, and not just about the American.

"Takashi." She said forlornly.

* * *

Takashi held Saeko for a long while as she silently wept after finally having to face the harsh reality that the American had died after all.

Takashi let her grieve for a while longer, knowing there was nothing else that could be done. But as the hour grew late, Takashi became concerned by the fact that they were still not out of danger yet, and they truly could not afford to grieve over the loss of their guardian and friend any longer.

The man's death had seemed to affect Saeko very deeply, but as painful as it was, Takahashi realized that he had no choice but to get them moving again back to their friends and get all of them to safety before nightfall.

"Saeko." Takashi said gently." I'm sorry, but he's gone. And we need to get back to the others. They might still be in danger."

Saeko had stopped crying, and was staring blankly out over the water, and not speaking.

"Saeko, please." Takashi said, keeping his voice gentle so as not to upset her.

"I understand Komuro-kun." she said quietly, although her voice still sounded so very sad.

"Please go ahead and ride back to the others. Marikawa-sensei has a blister on her foot that's causing her pain, and she can't walk very far right now. If you could go back and give her a ride over here. I'll wait here and watch Jimu-san's belonging's till you return."

Takashi frowned and shook his head. "I can't do that, Saeko. It's too dangerous to leave you here by yourself."

"I'll be all right." Saeko said smiling as she looked at him. "There's no cause for worry. Please, go get Shizuka-san and bring her here. I'll wait here until you return. I'd like to be alone for a little while."

"Saeko_." Takashi began to protest.

"DAMMIT TAKASHI,WILL YOU JUST GO!" Saeko yelled suddenly, turning her face away from him. "I don't want you here! I want to be alone, and I need you to go. NOW PLEASE, JUST LEAVE!"

Takashi was shocked at Saeko's sudden burst of anger, and took a step back. And then regaining his composure, he looked at her again, realizing that she was not really angry at him, but merely having a hard time dealing with her grief.

"No, Saeko." He said, calmly. "I can't do that, and if you were in my place, I don't believe you would leave me alone in such a dangerous place either, no matter how much I wanted to be left alone."

"Go away, Komuro-kun." Saeko said, her voice becoming hardened. " If you wish us to remain friends, leave now."

"I do wish to remain friends Busujima-sempai, but I would not be a friend if I left you here alone, Saeko." Takashi said. "And so then as I AM your friend, I WON'T leave you."

"And Jimu-san wouldn't want me to leave you alone either." Takashi said, walking towards her. "He would never want anything to happen to you, and he wouldn't want any of us to leave you all alone when you need us most."

Saeko continued to look away from him and stare out over the water, trying to hide her face as the tears continued to fall.

"We both need to get back to the others Saeko." Takashi said gently, trying not to arouse her anger again. "Jimu-san asked us to take care of the others if something ever happened to him, and I can't do it alone. Please, come back with me."

"You are quite capable of taking care of them Takashi-san." Saeko said, turning around to face him finally. "I'm not quite feeling up to it right now."

"I know you're not, and I know you miss him Saeko-san." Takashi said, still trying to coax her back. "But I can't do this alone, and I really need your help.

Saeko said nothing, as she stared at the pack still lying half out of the water.

"Saeko. Please. I NEED YOU." Takashi said, holding out his hand.

Saeko looked at him as he spoke and with tears filling her eyes, she fell into his arms as he held her close.

"Komuro-kun, arigato gozaimasu." She said under her breath as he held her.

After a few moments Saeko let go of him and wiped her eyes and face.

"Thank you Komuro-kun." She said smiling. "I think I'll be all right now."

Are you sure?" Takashi asked, concern still etched on his face.

"I'm as well as can be expected." She replied, the sadness in her eyes still very evident. "But your right, we need to get back to the others quickly. BOTH of us."

'Shall we go then?" Takashi said smiling, holding out his hand to her.

"Hai." Saeko replied, taking his hand and smiling as well.

Takashi took her hand and started to walk up the embankment back towards the bike, when Saeko pulled back gently on his hand.

"Komuro-kun." Saeko said and then hesitated a moment, before she continued.

"We need to take Jimu-san's pack with us. He said that we should take it if something ever happened to him because there were things we might need in it to aid us in our survival, and we really should take it back with us. I really don't want to leave it here for someone else to steal."

Takashi nodded. "You're right. How heavy is it though? It seems too bulky to carry on the bike."

"It's very heavy. Especially now that it's all wet." Saeko replied. "Please help me with it."

Takashi and Saeko took a look at the pack and washed off some of the mud that was on it as well as the mud on themselves. They then tried to lift the heavy pack and were able to carry it out of the water and place it onto the road.

But it was obvious by the weight and the bulk of it that there was no way Saeko could carry it on her shoulders and ride on the bike as well. The pack weighed more than she did.

"PHEW! What does he have in this thing? We can't take it this way." Takashi grumbled.

Not answering, Saeko knelt on the ground and began removing the cover that draped over the rifle stock, pulling the heavy sniper rifle out of the pack after she removed the cover.

"Komuro-kun, please hold this." Saeko said, handing him the heavy rifle.

Takashi gingerly reached out for the rifle and nearly dropped it when Saeko passed it to him. He had never handled a gun before other than the revolver that Rei had scavenged from the dead policeman last night. Takashi was not very comfortable handling guns, and the revolver Rei had given him last night had felt so heavy and clumsy for him to begin with.

But the American's sniper rifle was far heavier, and the size and weight of it intimidated him at first. He got a better grip on it and hefted it while Saeko began to rummage through the pack.

"What are you doing?" Takashi asked curiously, as he watched her.

"Jimu-san, said there was extra ammunition in this pack for his weapons. Perhaps I can find the ammunition needed for that rifle that you are holding." Saeko replied as she unzipped a compartment and found a few clothes bundled tightly in a clear plastic bag, and then zipped it back up and searched another compartment.

"Do you know how to use it?" Takashi asked watching her.

"No, but I believe Hirano-kun might be able to,….." She said, as she unzipped a compartment and then stopped talking suddenly.

Saeko said nothing for a moment, which began to scare Takashi as she seemed to be struggling with her emotions again as a pained look fell upon her face.

"Saeko-san, what's wrong?" Takashi asked growing worried when she didn't reply.

Saeko did not answer him. Instead she reached into the compartment she had just unzipped and pulled something out of the pack and held it in both her hands. She then lowered her head as tears began to fall from her eyes once more.

"Saeko-san, what is it?!" Takashi repeated, alarmed at her reaction.

Takashi walked over and held Saeko as she once again broke down crying and let the object she was holding fall to the ground. Takashi held Saeko as she wept bitterly, and then he stared at the object that was now lying on the ground, and wondered what great significance the object had that would cause Saeko to react this way.

"What is something like THAT doing in his pack anyway?" He thought puzzled, as he stared at the curious contents in the clear plastic bag that seemed so out of place in the pack of a soldier.

Takashi could only shake his head in confusion at the sight of the pair of women's sneakers lying on the ground.

* * *

Among the small group of four still resting on the railing up the road, unaware of the tragedy unfolding downstream, only one among them had accepted the fact that the American was indeed gone. But she said nothing, knowing that saying anything would only further shatter everyone's spirits all the more and only serve to discourage them further, no matter how hopeless the odds were that the man was still alive.

"He didn't survive that fall." Saya thought to herself. "And if he did, that river is so swift; I doubt he could keep from drowning still wearing that big backpack he was always carrying around."

The sound of a motorcycle engine approaching broke Saya's thoughts, as she and everyone else looked down the road and saw the familiar face of Takashi and Saeko riding towards them.

"Takashi!" Rei said, her face lighting up at seeing him as she breathed a sigh of relief.

'Komuro-kun!" Saya and Shizuka said aloud, as Kouta turned to watch as they approached.

"Do you think they found him? Is he riding on the bike with them?" Kouta asked as he turned around again and looked back up the road behind them, still keeping watch.

"I'm not sure, I don't see him." Rei said as the riders continued to approach from a half mile away.

"Baka." Saya said, annoyed at Kouta. "Do you honestly think that little bike is big enough to carry all three of them?"

"Saya-chan, be nice." Shizuka scolded the teen as she looked towards the two riders that were approaching. Takashi was operating the bike of course, and Saeko was riding behind him, her hands around his waist leaning against him as they rode towards the group.

But there was something else, Shizuka noted, as the two teens approached. Sticking out from behind Saeko's shoulder, the barrel of a rifle protruded attached to a sling that Saeko wore over her shoulder. And before she could even see the grim looks on the two teen's faces, Shizuka already knew.

The American was dead.

"Oh, no." Shizuka thought, as the full reality of the loss hit her.

And as the two riders grimly pulled up, the rest of the teens finally felt it as well.

* * *

Everyone was silent at first as Takashi brought the bike to a stop and shut the engine off, as Saeko got off the bike. The two teens were drenched and covered in mud, but that didn't stop Shizuka from embracing Saeko as she walked towards them, Saeko's eyes not looking up at her.

"Gomen nasai, Saeko-chan." Shizuka said holding her. "I'm so sorry."

Saeko returned the embrace and nodded her head. She had cried herself out before she and Takashi had hopped on the bike for the sad, lonely ride back to the others. Now she was trying to be strong for the sake of her friends around her, as well as trying to deal with her own grief as well.

"Thank you for your concern, sensei. But I'm all right, really." Saeko replied looking at her and giving a thin smile. "He died trying to help us, and I'm proud of him for what he did. But our priority now is to move to a safer place before nightfall."

" Komuro-kun is going to give you a ride to where we found Jimu's pack in the meantime. The rest of us are going to walk over there and meet up with you, and then try to find a place to seek shelter for the night."

Rei walked up to Takashi and spoke quietly to him, trying to be discreet since the rest were clearly very broken up about the American's death. Even Saya and Kouta were holding each other and crying, which surprised Rei since they had done nothing but bicker since she met them.

"What happened?" Rei asked.

"I'll explain later." Takashi said quietly. "Right now, it's not safe here, and we need to get everyone away from here and fast, just in case those freaks come back."

"Saeko." Takashi said, turning toward her.

Saeko turned her head and seeing the look on his face, nodded her head.

"Our grief for Jimu-san will have to wait everyone. Right now we need to leave this area in case our previous visitors decide to come back." Saeko said, her voice even, and in control.

"Marikawa-sensei." Saeko said looking at the nurse.

"Hai?" Shizuka replied.

"Komuro-kun is going to give you a ride on the motorcycle to where we found Jimu-san's pack. The rest of us will walk and join you both shortly."

"Hai." Shizuka acknowledged, grateful to not have to walk on her sore foot anymore as she moved towards the bike.

"Hirano-kun." Saeko said, a she unslung the American's sniper rifle from her shoulder and held it in both hands looking directly at Kouta as he still held Saya in his arms.

"Do you know how to use this?" Saeko asked, as Kouta detached himself from Saya and took it from Saeko.

"Yes, I do." Kouta said quietly, as he cycled the bolt, ejecting the spent cartridge and then checked the chamber and pulled out the remaining rounds.

"Only two shots left." Kouta said matter-of-factly.

"There were five boxes of these." Saeko said pulling a box of ammo for the rifle from a pocket in her skirt, and passed it to Kouta. "We wanted to bring the whole pack but it was much too heavy, so I brought this one box only. When we get up to the bridge, we can get the rest."

"Thank you." Kouta said, not looking up at her as he accepted the box of ammo and opened it. He then took out six cartridges and loaded the rounds into the rifle and cycled the bolt, loading a round into the chamber.

He then opened the scope caps on both ends of the large riflescope and peered through it, and seeing no damage to the lenses, lowered the rifle and then nodded to Saeko that he was ready.

Takashi could see the dramatic change that the man's death had on everyone, and he had been worried that everyone might be too shattered emotionally to deal with the situation. But he was grateful to see that not only was everyone dealing with their grief admirably, but they were also working together as a team just like they had before.

"Everyone." Takashi began, as everyone turned to look at him. "Jimu-san was good friend. And I know it's hard for all of you right now. But please stay focused."

"We are not out of danger yet, and we cannot afford to let our guard down, so stay sharp. We're headed for the second bridge up the road. Once there we'll grab everything from Jimu-san's pack that we can use and then find someplace safe to stay the night. Agreed?"

Everyone nodded their heads at his words and Takashi then looked at Kouta.

" Kouta, let me have your pistol please." Takashi said, holding out his hand.

Kouta immediately took the revolver from his belt and handed it over to Takashi. "There's only three shots left." He said as he took it from him.

"That's all right; I have a couple left in my pocket." Takashi replied breaking open the cylinder and ejecting the two spent cases and then loaded two more before slapping the cylinder back in place. Takashi then looked out over everyone and motioned to Shizuka to follow him.

"We'll be waiting for you at the next bridge everyone, Saeko knows the way. If you run into trouble, fire a shot, we'll come back. I'll do the same if we run into trouble. OK?"

Everyone nodded in acknowledgement and began to gather their weapons in preparation for moving out.

"Be safe everyone." Takashi said as he throttled up. "See you soon."

Takashi looked over everyone one last time and then nodded towards everyone as he sped off with Shizuka hanging on to him.

"I was wrong." Shizuka thought as they sped down the road. "It's not just Kouta-chan who has changed. All of them have grown up so much since yesterday."

"Jimu-san." Shizuka thought to herself as she closed her eyes. "You'd be so proud."

* * *

Everyone watched them as they speed off down the road, no one saying a word as they disappeared into the distance until finally, Saeko broke the spell.

"Allright everyone, time to go." Saeko said as she looked over everyone. " I'll lead the way, Miyamoto-san, please walk behind me. Takagi-san? Please walk in front of Hirano-kun as before and Hirano-kun? Please watch our rear."

"YES Ma'am!" Kouta said with a little too much enthusiasm at Saeko's order.

"She means for you to watch the area behind us as we're walking you jack-ass!" Saya yelled, noticing the goofy look on Kouta's face.

"Hai." Kouta said watching the road behind them, scanning the area quickly by peering through the riflescope, and seeing nothing, lowered the rifle. "All clear behind us."

"Good, let's go then." Saeko said, smiling slightly.

Kouta was in full combat mode now, and Saeko was relieved that even amidst all this tragedy, Kouta was proving to be extremely dependable in this very difficult situation.

Saeko led the sad procession towards the second bridge, all of them extremely quiet as they passed underneath the first bridge where the American had made his fatal leap.

Each of them were greatly saddened by the memory of the friend they had lost trying to help them as they passed underneath the bridge, and then each of them also bristled at the sound of the Infected moving around above their heads on the bridge, the sound of their moans echoing over the water and infuriating them one and all.

There wasn't one among them that wasn't tempted to go and kill every Infected person moving about on the bridge as they passed underneath.

* * *

It didn't take long for the small group to reach the bridge where Takashi and Shizuka sat waiting for them to arrive as the sun was beginning to set. Both parties happy to see the other safe, yet both still very much feeling the same sense of loss they had earlier, which made the otherwise happy reunion bittersweet.

As they approached each other Shizuka stood up and hugged Rei, Saeko, and Saya as Kouta shook hands with Takashi. Takashi then returned the revolver to Kouta despite the other teen's protests and then looked up at everyone as they gathered around him, each of them mindful of the pack that the American used to wear lying nearby. A stark reminder of the person that had been amongst them, and was now gone.

"I don't know what happened since Miyamoto-san and I left the bus yesterday." Takashi began. "But I know that despite being a stranger to our land, Jimu-san took it upon himself to watch over us even though he didn't have to. And even though I still don't know anything about him, I know that he cared enough about all of us to want to help us get home to our families."

" And I also know now that he meant a lot to the rest of you.' Takashi said looking at Saeko and Saya as Shizuka held them in her arms. "And I wish we could have helped him somehow, like he helped us."

"But he's gone, and now we have to help ourselves." Takashi said, staring at the ground a moment before he continued speaking. "Jimu-san asked Busujima-sempai and I to take the lead and get all of us home if something ever happened to him. And that's what we are going to do."

"But for right now, we need to take a break and rest a moment." Takashi said, looking up at them again. "Then we are going to take whatever we can from Jimu-san's pack and then find a safe place to spend the night. Any questions?"

Each member of the group shook their heads at his question, and then each of them went and found a small spot to rest before they went back on the move again.

Rei walked over to Takashi and as she approached, he could tell by the look on her face that she was clearly concerned about something.

"What is it?" He asked, as she approached him.

"You didn't answer my question a while ago Takashi." Rei said, frowning. "What happened after you and Busujima-sempai left? You were gone so long I was beginning to worry."

Takashi sighed. "We went down the road for a couple of miles and passed two bridges without seeing anything. I doubled back and we saw something in the water that we thought might be him."

"It wasn't." Takashi said looking at her. "It was only his pack. We grabbed the rifle and a box of ammo and were going to bring this for Marikawa-sensei." Takashi said, reaching into the pack and then holding up the bag with the women's sneakers. "But we left them here until I could bring Marikawa-sensei back. But when I got her back here, I forgot all about them until now."

"Where did you get THOSE?" Rei asked puzzled.

"I didn't. Saeko says she believes Jimu-san scavenged these, trying to get some decent shoes for Marikawa-san to wear, so she could walk more comfortably because of her injured foot. We found them inside the pack."

"Saeko?" Rei asked, slightly irritated that Takashi and Saeko now seemed to be on a first name basis so quickly.

Both of them turned suddenly as they heard a loud gasp come from behind them.

* * *

The sound had come from Shizuka who had spotted the shoes in Takashi's hand and suddenly realized whom the shoes were meant for.

Shizuka had resolved herself to be strong for the teens, knowing that the death of their friend would be very difficult for them to deal with, especially the way he had died.

She was especially trying to be a source of strength and comfort for Saeko, whom she feared would be the most affected by the man's death. The sight of seeing the shoes in Takashi's hands however and the sudden realization of who they were meant for and the horrible price paid for them, caught her completely off guard. And once again, a wave of guilt began to wash over her.

Takashi lifted the bag, and looked at Shizuka who stared at them blankly.

" Ano," He began, almost apologetically. "I believe Jimu-san got these for you sensei, so you could be able to walk despite your injury. We found them in his pack after we pulled it out of the river."

Takashi stepped forward and tried to hand the bag to Shizuka, who then shrank back from it, her eyes wide.

"NO. Please, take them away." Shizuka said, her eyes beginning to tear.

"Eh?" Takashi and Rei said, both of them confused by the nurse's reaction.

"PLEASE, take them away, Komuro-chan." Shizuka said, as tears fell down her face. " Please just take them away." she said.

"Sensei, Jimu-san got them so you could walk more comfortably so your injury could get better." Takashi said, still confused by the nurses reaction to seeing the shoes. The nurse's reaction was confusing to everyone watching her, all of them not comprehending as to why she was acting as if she had seen a ghost.

"Shizuka-san, what's wrong?" Saeko said, also confused and starting to worry now at the nurse's reaction. "Is there something wrong with the shoes?"

Shizuka looked at Saeko tearfully for a moment and then cast her gaze back at the clear plastic bag in Takashi's hands and wanted to tear it out of his hands and tear the contents apart and throw it all in the river and scream and yell in rage and anguish at the tragedy and the cruel irony of how the simple thing being held in his hands had cost a dear friend his life.

"GET THEM AWAY FROM ME!" Shizuka screamed as she quickly caught herself and clamped her hands over her mouth and began to weep uncontrollably as her knees began to buckle.

Horrified, everyone rushed forward to grab her before she could fall. Saya and Saeko quickly grabbing her before she fell, and then easing her to the ground as she continued to weep for no apparent reason.

"SENSEI, WHAT'S WRONG?!" Saeko asked, extremely alarmed by the nurse's near collapse.

"I'm sorry Saeko-chan." The nurse said between sobs." I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't want this. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me Saeko-chan!" Shizuka said letting her words trail off in a long bitter wail.

"SENSEI. What are you talking about!" Saeko asked, thoroughly confused at Shizuka's words and her emotional breakdown. "It wasn't your fault."

"YES IT WAS!" Shizuka wailed loudly. "He went out there all ALONE to find a car and to get shoes FOR ME! He did all that because of a STUPID blister on my foot, because I was too dumb to wear anything but these STUPID THINGS!" Shizuka said as she suddenly tore off her own shoes and threw them out into the road.

"He went OUT THERE because of ME!" Shizuka said crying.

"He got those shoes BECAUSE OF ME! HE DIED BECAUSE OF ME!" She cried as she grabbed Saeko and held her tight.

"I'm so sorry Saeko-chan. I'm so sorry." Shizuka said as she held Saeko and cried on her shoulder. "Please forgive me."

Saeko held the poor woman, completely racked with guilt and spoke to her softly, trying to help ease her pain.

"Sensei, it's NOT your fault." She said soothingly.

"No. It isn't." Takashi said, interrupting. "It isn't your fault Marikawa-sensei that any of this happened. It's not your fault that you and the others had to leave the safety of the bus, and walk for miles from Shido and THEM. And it's not your fault Jimu-san died trying to help, not just for you, but for ALL of us."

"I would have done the same. If I had been here." Takashi said, as he stared at the ground. "It's my fault, not yours Sensei."

* * *

"Takashi!" Rei said, horrified at his remark. "How can you say that? You weren't even here when all this happened. How could it be your fault?"

"Because I WASN'T here when I should have been!" Takashi answered angrily. "Jimu-san was a foreigner! He wasn't from here! We're not his fellow countrymen, his friends, neighbor's, or even family! He had NO obligation to help any of us! And even so, he took it upon himself to take care of us, and DIED because of it!"

"But he shouldn't have, because I'M the one who is responsible for all of you! I SHOULD have been here to help him and not be off elsewhere running around, while he went off and did what was really my responsibility." Takashi said, his voice trailing off.

"He's dead because of me, not you Marikawa-san."

"That's stupid." Saya said, frowning. "No one is to blame here, and you shouldn't feel guilty because of what happened either, Komuro-san. All of you should quit blaming yourselves, it's not true, and it's not helping."

"Besides, the only reason you weren't here was because Miyamoto-san left the bus, and you ran after her and got trapped. It's not your fault Komuro-kun." Saya said matter-of-factly.

Rei couldn't help but notice that Saya had TWICE mentioned before about her leaving the others behind already, and that could only mean one thing, Rei thought.

"So what are you implying Takagi-san, that it's my fault then?" Reid said hotly.

"I didn't say that!" Saya replied, Rei's comment catching her completely off guard. She hadn't meant anything personal by mentioning Rei's sudden departure from the group. However, now that Rei seemed intent on being so defensive about it, Saya couldn't help but feel a little put off by the other girl's attitude.

"But that's what you meant, didn't you?" Rei said, angrily balling her fists.

"No, that's NOT what I meant." Saya replied angrily. "But if you're going to get so pissy about it, then YEAH, maybe all of this IS your fault! Maybe if you hadn't thrown a tantrum like a SPOILED LITTLE GIRL, and run off crying like you did, maybe Komuro-kun wouldn't have to have been separated from the rest of us because of you, and then Jimu-san wouldn't have had to go off by himself because there wasn't anyone else to back him up!"

"YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR THAT!" Rei shrieked. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT SHIDO DID TO ME BEFORE!"

"OH YEAH? WELL WHAT ABOUT WHAT HE COULD HAVE DONE TO US!" Saya shot back. "He tried to kill Jimu-san in his sleep! He even tried to force Marikawa-sensei to stay with him against her will! And who knows WHAT he would have done to the rest of us given enough time?"

"Guys! Calm down!" Takashi hissed as the noise from the two girl's angry voices began to rise in volume.

His warning was completely ignored though as the bell for the next round had rung and both of the girls' came out swinging.

" IF YOU WERE SO DAMNED WORRIED ABOUT HOW DANGEROUS SHIDO WAS, WHY THE HELL DID YOU LEAVE US HANGING WITHOUT EVEN GIVING US A WARNING OF WHAT HE WAS CAPABLE OF?!" Saya shouted accusingly.

"I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN!" Rei yelled, feeling cornered by Saya's words. "HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HE WOULD GO CRAZY LIKE THAT?!"

"WELL OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T KNOW! HOW COULD YOU, WHEN YOU DECIDE TO BAIL OUT ON YOUR FRIENDS AND LEAVE THEM TO ROT BECAUSE ALL YOU CAN THINK OF IS YOURSELF!" Saya screamed angrily.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Rei screamed back, and then stepped forward angrily. "I CAME TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU WERE ATTACKED, YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BITCH!"

"A LOT OF GOOD THAT DID! " Saya retorted. "YOU KNOCKED A COUPLE OF PEOPLE DOWN AND THEN GOT YOUR ASS KICKED, AND THE MAN THAT HAD TO SAVE YOUR SORRY ASS IS DEAD, BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Rei completely lost her cool then, and dropping her spear and screaming angrily, ran directly at Saya with her fist raised, trying to punch her in the mouth.

She was held back by Takashi who had quickly grabbed her by the waist and then lifted her off the ground as she kicked and screamed at Saya, who was now also being restrained by Kouta and Saeko who were having a tough time trying to keep her from pummeling Rei as well.

"EVERYONE PLEASE STOP IT!" Shizuka yelled, trying to keep the two teens from killing one another.

"Geez, I leave you kids alone for a few minutes and you're already trying to kill each other." A familiar voice said from somewhere above them.

Everyone's heads turned sharply at the sound of the voice coming from behind them as they saw the familiar figure of the man they had thought dead, move down from the top of the small hill and then walk on the road underneath the bridge towards them.

His face was scratched, his clothes still damp and torn, and there was dried blood on his clothes, but by some miracle, it was him, still very much alive.

"JIMU!" Saeko yelled as she let go of Saya and ran towards the man's outstretched arms and began crying again, as he held her.

"Hey, sweetie." The American said, holding Saeko tightly as she sobbed on his chest.

The fight forgotten, everyone was astounded to see the man they all had thought dead, still very much alive and standing before them.

Shizuka started to really cry then at the sight of seeing Saeko being embraced by the man she had feared lost, relieved that the horrible tragedy that they had all believed had befallen the man had turned out to not be the case after all.

The American seemed not to notice them for a few moments as he held Saeko in his arms. And then he turned towards the rest of the group and smiled weakly at them, obviously beaten and tired from his near death ordeal.

"Hey guys.''He said, looking up at all of them. "Everyone all righ_"

"SMACK!"

Before he could finish, everyone flinched as Saeko suddenly pulled away from the man's embrace and slapped him hard across the face, causing him to stumble back from the force of the blow that sounded very much like a gunshot.

"BAKAAAA!" Saeko screamed as she stood staring at him absolutely furious, as tears streamed down her face, while the American stood there looking at her in surprise, and everyone else stared in shock.

"Ara?" Shizuka said, completely confused.


	16. Chapter 15-Crossroads Part Five

Last Alarm

Chapter 15

"Crossroads" Part Five

* * *

"_Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them." Jodi Picoult_

* * *

As I plunged into the freezing water, all I heard was the load roar of the current as I sank into the depths. The light from the late afternoon sun disappeared as I sank to the bottom and all I saw then, was darkness. I held my breath as the pressure of the water tried to crush it right out of me forcing me to expel what precious air I had left in my lungs.

And once it did, I knew my lungs would instinctively try to inhale, despite my strongest efforts not to, and I would involuntarily suck in water instead of life-giving air.

My body would then attempt to save itself by, "the Mammalian Diving Reflex" that we were taught about back in Paramedic school, were the body tries to prevent water from seeping through the trachea into my lungs by closing off the glottis as I fought, kicked and spasmed trying to struggle for air where there was none.

And as my brain was deprived of oxygen," hypoxia" it's called, then I would began to hallucinate, and then eventually, after a horrible span of moments that seemed to last forever, I would finally, mercifully, pass out.

And as my body relaxed and my lungs filled with water, I would then sink to the depths, until sometime later, when the gases produced from decomposition would cause me to float to the surface. If the fish didn't get to me first, that is.

I had already experienced near- drowning twice before, during swift water training at the Fire Department, and I had barely survived the first time because no one had noticed that I was in trouble till it was almost too late. I still remember every awful moment of it.

The second time was not quite so bad, but like they say, "The third time is the charm."

And it seemed that this really was going to be true, in this case.

Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed me by the shirt collar, and I was then roughly yanked to the surface of the water. And as my head broke the surface, I let out a loud gasp, and I sucked in all the air that I could, and then promptly threw up.

And after that, I hacked and coughed for all I was worth.

* * *

"WHAT THE F_CK IS WRONG WITH YOU, C_ ?!" An unseen voice screamed at me at the top of his lungs.

"ARE YOU THAT MUCH OF A F_CKING P_SSY, THAT YOU'RE GOING TO DROWN IN THREE F_CKING FEET OF WATER?!" He roared.

"HOW THE HELL DOES A BIG ASS APE LIKE YOU THINK YOU CAN POSSIBLY GET IN THE TEAMS?!" He screamed as he yanked me to my feet.

"TEAMS?" I thought as I coughed and hacked. "Who IS this guy, and how the hell does he know my REAL name? And just where the hell am I?" I wondered, as he continued to scream into my ear.

"MY BAT-SHIT CRAZY GRANDMA CAN SWIM BETTER THAN YOU CAN "DOC", AND SHE'S BAT-SHIT CRAZY! SO WHAT THE F_CK IS YOU'RE EXCUSE, C_ ?" The man roared as I finally got my wits about me and stared into the face of NSWC Instructor Chief Petty Officer J. Vaughn, who was glaring at me.

And then it hit me. The year was 1988. I had left home after graduating from High School in 1986, and had immediately enlisted in the Navy.

And now, here I was at the Naval Special Warfare Center at Coronado Island getting my ass kicked with less than 100 other candidates left from an original 200, on the third day of HELL WEEK during Basic Underwater Demolition School.

While I was still in high school I had been interested in joining the Submarine Service, initially. But after reading a ton of books on anything to do with undersea warfare, I became intrigued after reading some of author Clive Cussler's books, about a special breed of underwater warriors that he had made reference to, more than a few times in fact. The SEAL's.

And so after enlisting, and going through training as a Pharmacist's Mate, I volunteered for BUD's as soon as I was able to meet their minimum qualifications. And now here I was, cold, wet, miserable and exhausted, and completely covered in sand, trying to cough up half of the Pacific out of my lungs while the Chief prepared to toss my ass right back in.

"NO EXCUSE INSTRUCTOR VAUGHN! " I yelled, or at least tried to anyway, as I coughed up salt water and whatever other briny crap I had swallowed when I had fallen down into the surf on my boat crew's return trip to the beach and my boat crew accidentally ran over me, trapping me between the IBS that we were carrying and the sandy bottom.

*IBS ( Inflatable- Boat- Small)

I was already beginning to hallucinate when Instructor Vaughn, reached down and yanked me to the surface, saving my life.

After screaming his head off at my boat crew for MY screw-up, he had now turned his attention to me, singling me out for some "personal instruction time", as the rest of the guys ran up on shore with the IBS and began doing push-ups on the beach.

"GET YOUR STUPID ASS OUT OF THE WATER, C_ AND GET SANDY!"

"HOOYAH, INSTRUCTOR VAUGHN!" I croaked, as I flung myself into the sand and rolled around till I was covered head to toe in sand.

"GET WET, C_ !" He yelled at me as I stood at attention after rolling around in the sand.

"HOOYAH, INSTRUCTOR VAUGHN!" I croaked again as I flung myself back into the surf and crashed in.

"GET OUT OF THE WATER, C_! The instructor roared again as I painfully got out of the water and headed back up towards the beach.

"GET SANDY!" I was ordered yet again as I rolled into the sand, my skin rubbed raw everywhere from the grit. And apparently I was not fast enough for the Chief, because once again I heard him roar for me to get wet again, and so back into the surf I went.

After I was ordered to return to the beach and to roll in the sand again, I was finally given permission to join my boat crew.

Because of our "mishap" though, we were then made to carry our IBS over our head as we were forced to listen to the instructor preach to us the finer points of what it takes to be in the TEAMS and how we weren't good enough to even hope to clean the "head" on a garbage scow, much less make it as an operator in the SEAL Teams.

Especially me, the instructor seemed to like to point out.

And as we all grunted from the strain of holding the IBS over our heads, the Chief then came right up to the left side of my head and screamed into my ear.

"I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A SORRY ASS PIECE OF SHIT LIKE YOU, C_ !"

"WHAT THE F_CK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" He yelled.

"I WANT TO BE IN THE TEAMS, INSTRUCTOR VAUGHN!" I replied.

"BULLSHIT! YOUR SORRY ASS COULDN'T TREAD WATER IN A F_CKING KIDDIE POOL AND SURVIVE! WHAT THE F_CK MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN BE A FROGMAN, C_ ?!"

"BECAUSE I WON'T QUIT TILL I AM ONE, INSTRUCTOR VAUGHN!" I replied, gritting my teeth as my arms were shaking from the weight of the IBS as all the guys were shaking and grunting as well from the effort.

"WELL, aren't you special, C_ ? The Instructor said sarcastically.

"YOU HEAR THAT LADIES?" He said to the rest of my boat crew. " Pharmacist's Mate C_ here, says he never gonna quit till he becomes a frogman."

"THAT IS SO MUCH DRAMATIC HOLLYWOOD BULLSHIT, C_ ! The Chief screamed, as I grunted from the pain in my arms. "YOU MAKE ME WANNA PUKE HAVING TO LISTEN TO THAT HORSESHIT!"

"IT'S NOT HORSESHIT!" I yelled suddenly and then shut my mouth, horrified at what I had just done. Even the guys stopped grunting despite the pain they were all suffering as the Chief looked over at me and smiled.

"Oh shit." I thought.

''Did you just say something, C_ ? The Chief said to me in a voice so calm, that I knew I was a dead man.

I was screwed no matter what, but no way in hell was I gonna open my mouth now.

"No answer, C_ ? The Chief asked evilly.

''GET THAT BOAT DOWN!" He roared, as we lowered the boat to the ground, and then stood at attention.

"GET WET, C_ NOW! He roared, as the rest of the guys remained at attention.

"Aw maaan." I thought as I shuffled to the surf and basically, plopped in.

"GET SANDY ,C_ MOVE! He roared again as I shuffled out of the water and slammed into the sand. Unlike before though, I was unable to roll around for some reason.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING JUST LYING THERE, C_ , I TOLD YOU TO GET SANDY, NOT TAKE A F_CKING NAP!" He roared, as I lay there, not moving.

I tried to get up, but my body just wouldn't move as I struggled to lift my head up at least, hoping the rest of my body would follow. Just as I finally succeeded in raising my head, I was rewarded with a boat paddle full of sand being flung into my face as the Chief tried to bury me in the California sand.

"LOOK AT YOU, C_! EVEN A F_CKING JELLYFISH HAS MORE SPINE THAN YOU! "

"WHY DON'T YOU GO BACK TO SCRUBBING BEDPANS, DOC?!"

"C'MON MAN, RING THE F_CKING BELL, AND IT'LL BE ALL OVER." The Chief roared as he flung boat paddle after boat paddle of sand on my body as I lay there, grateful for the fact that I was being buried alive and could die in peace now. At least I hadn't rang that stupid bell.

"GO BACK TO YOUR NICE CLEAN HOSPITAL, DOC! YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!"

" WADDAYA SAY?! NO MORE SAND! NO MORE SURF! NO MORE HELL WEEK!""

"C'MON! NICE HOT SHOWERS, CLEAN SCRUBS, HOT CHOW AND HOT NURSES! DOESN'T THAT SOUND F_CKING AWESOME?!" He yelled, trying hard to test my motivation.

It did sound pretty awesome though, actually.

" C'MON, DOC! RING THE F_CKING BELL! YOU'LL BE DOING YOUR BOAT CREW A FAVOR TOO, NOT HAVING TO DRAG YOUR WORTHLESS ASS EVERYWHERE!"

" C'MON DOC, WADDAYA SAY?!"

"I'm not ringing the bell, Instructor Vaughn!" I sputtered, my mouth full of sand as well as every other part of me.

"What did you say, doc?" The Chief asked, REAL friendly-like.

"SPEAK UP, C_ ! WHAT THE F_CK DID YOU SAY?!" He roared, not AT ALL so friendly as before.

"I SAID I AIN'T RINGING THAT MOTHER-F_CKING PIECE OF SHIT BELL, INSTRUCTOR VAUGHAN!" I yelled in answer.

"HOOYAH!" I yelled in defiance.

"DADDY! WAKE UP!"

* * *

The sound of a young girl's voice jolted me awake as I sat up suddenly, gasping for breath, and then began staring all around at my surroundings.

I wasn't on the beach at Coronado being buried alive, nor was I experiencing the pain and torture of the third day of HELL WEEK.

I was in my home. Not the little run-down apartment back in San Antonio, but my house back in Kerrville, in the Texas Hill Country.

And even stranger, I was lying in my bedroom on a Japanese-style futon, surrounded all around by Japanese décor.

"This can't be." I thought. "I left this house back in 2007, when the economy fell on its ass."

"And it certainly didn't look like THIS when I was living here."

"DAD-DY?! I heard that same small voice calling out again, and was shocked to see an extremely cute little girl staring at me as she kneeled on the floor right next to the futon.

She was definitely a cutie. She looked between 3-4 years of age, of Asian ancestry, wearing a little girl's pink sundress and sporting the cutest little pig-tails sticking out from both sides of her head. What shocked me though was the identity of who the little girl was.

"Saeko-chan?" I said, my eyes widening. "That can't be. Saeko is a teenager."

"Isn't she?" I thought my head reeling.

"Dad-dy!" The chibi version of Saeko whined as she frowned at me.

"Well, the frown is definitely Saeko's." I thought as the young girl looked at me, seemingly annoyed.

"What is it honey?" I asked, still confused as to what was going on.

"You were having a bad dream daddy. Are you okay now?" The little girl asked.

"Um, yeah honey." I stammered. "I WAS having a bad dream."

"Sure wish it had been a memory though, and not only a dream." I thought.

"But I'm okay now." I said smiling at her.

"You sure?" She said looking at me, skeptical.

"Yeah baby, I'm fine now." I said winking at her as she stared at me frowning for a long while and not saying anything. It was a little unnerving actually, watching her staring at me that way.

"Daddy?" Saeko asked finally, after a long uncomfortable silence.

"Yes, Saeko-chan?" I asked puzzled by her behavior.

'You said a bad word." She snapped, as her frown deepened significantly.

I looked at her blankly for a moment as she frowned at me, and then rolled over in bed laughing my head off at the sight of this tiny little girl scolding me.

"Oh this is TOO much!" I said roaring with laughter. Even as a tot, Saeko was getting after me. It was just too funny. At least, I thought so anyway.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY, DADDY! Saeko said raising her voice and then starting to sniffle, and then big crocodile tears began to run down her cheeks.

"YOU'RE BEING MEAN, DADDY!" She began to whine.

"Waaaaaah! I'M GOING TO TELL MOMMY!" She said crying out loud finally, as she got up off her knees and started running towards the door.

"No, no, no, honey. I'm sorry. Don't cry! "I said suddenly panicking as I picked her up and placed her on my lap and held her as she howled. " I was just playing sweetie."

"Daddy didn't mean to make you cry sweetie. I'm sorry." I said trying to console her, and failing miserably.

"Nice going Jim." I said cursing myself, and trying hard to figure out a way to stop this tiny child with a man-size pair of lungs from freaking out the whole neighborhood as she cried her eyes out.

"You're definitely not going to win father of the year anytime soon, ya dumb-ass."

"Hey!" I said, spotting just the thing I needed to make things better. "What is that?" I said making a big show of picking up the paper she had been holding in her hand that she dropped as she was about to run out of the room.

"Is that a picture you colored Saeko-chan?" I asked her as she finally stopped crying and looked at the picture I was holding, her eyes and cheeks all puffy.

"Hai. Teacher taught us the letter "A" today, daddy." Saeko said, still sniffling. "See? "A" is for "apple, and I colored it."

"You sure did sweetie." I said, as she looked up at me.

"That's a very pretty blue that you colored the apple there Saeko-chan." I said as her face beamed with joy at my praise of her artistic ability.

"Like father like daughter apparently." I thought to myself, trying not to laugh.

Evidently, my daughter had the same talent as I did for choosing only the blue crayons to color with for everything, and also for mashing the crayons into the paper trying to make sure the coloring remained permanent. Not to mention also coloring outside the lines just to be thorough like I did, when I was her age.

"Woo, Boy. I sure hope she gains some other talents as she grows up." I thought to myself. "Because daddy sure does suck when it comes to art, and if she's just like me in that respect,….DANG!"

As Saeko started to tell me all about the things she learned in school today, I was hit with a sudden, horrible thought as she sat on my lap.

"What if this is a dream too?" I thought with dread. What if ALL of this is a dream?"

I looked down at the tiny girl sitting in my lap talking about her friends at school and held her tighter.

"I have a family." I thought as my eyes began to tear. "I have a home."

"Please, don't let this be a dream." I said as I leaned down and kissed Saeko on the head and held on to her for dear life.

"PLEASE." I said, out loud. "THIS is all I've ever really wanted. PLEASE, I've tried to help others as much as I can. I've bled, hurt, sacrificed and nearly died several times trying to be a good man."

" PLEASE. All I ask is this NOT to be a dream. Please let me have this, PLEASE." I begged as I looked down at Saeko who had stopped talking and looked up at me.'

"Daddy? Why are you crying?" She asked me, starting to sniffle a bit herself. "Why are you sad?"

"Don't cry baby, daddy's not sad." I said trying to sooth her and not get her worked up again. "I'm crying because daddy is just happy, that's all." I said as I hugged her tightly, and spoke out loud my most heartfelt thoughts at that very moment as I held her.

"If any of the things I ever did has meant anything, then PLEASE, I beg you. If this is a dream, then please, let it be the last thing I ever remember. Please let me die with this one last beautiful moment being the last thing I ever know before I'm gone. Please let me have this, at least. PLEASE, I'm BEGGING YOU."

"Daddy? Who are you talking to?" Saeko asked me, her eyes growing wide.

I looked upon the face of my daughter, my child, my baby, and took every feature in.

I gazed into her beautiful eyes, her black hair tied into cute little pigtails with pink string tied around them, her little hands gripping my arms as I held her.

"I love you baby." I said as I finally broke down.

"MOMMY! SOMETHING's WRONG WITH DADDY!" Saeko yelled as she started to cry again.

"HONEY?!" The sound of a woman's voice coming from the next room reached my ears as Saeko kept crying and I heard footsteps rushing towards us and I felt a presence at the door. My eyes burned with my tears, and my vision was blurred as someone spoke in a worried voice.

"JIM! Honey, what's wrong?!" The female voice asked as I looked up at the figure of a woman standing at the door.

My wife.

I blinked my eyes trying to see the face of the woman that I had so fondly wished for. And as I opened my eyes,…..

I found myself looking at the late afternoon sky, feeling the chill of a cool breeze flowing over me as I shivered in my wet clothes, while water lapped all around me.

* * *

It had been a dream, all of it.

No, it wasn't a dream. What it really was, was the most horrible kind of joke that could be played on a broken man.

The most horrible thing you can do to a man who has known nothing but misery most of his life is to give him a small slice of joy for the merest glimpse of time, and then snatch it away from him and shove the horrible reality of his fate right back in his face. Trust me, death would be a blessing compared to that.

It is said that dreams are really our deepest hopes, wants, desires, and anxieties that lie so deep within us, that we are not even conscious of them until our mind enters that realm of sleep and our mind relaxes and lets us see these hidden thoughts in the form of dreams, sometimes only in small pieces, but as in my case, as a vision so clear, I really believed I was living it.

There were only two things I really wanted in my life that were dear to my heart, and while I was allowed to dream about them, I wasn't allowed to have either one in reality.

Which made my waking up from that dream that much more painful, as I looked and saw that there was nothing in my arms after all, which a mere moment ago, I had been holding the most precious bundle a man could have.

My true reality was that I was still in Japan, a wanted man hunted by both men and monsters, lost in a horrible nightmare I could not escape from, and doomed to endure it for as long as I remained alive.

The anger, and the anguish that I was feeling, I could keep inside no longer.

I've never blamed God for my troubles, and I wasn't starting now.

I just couldn't keep my pain in any longer.

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!" I yelled into the sky, not caring who or what, heard my anguished cry.

I got off the ground in anger and stood up, beaten and bruised and hurting in every possible way, and shouted into the sky at the top of my lungs, not caring if any Infected were lurking around.

As far as I was concerned, they could kill me. I would have welcomed their arrival too.

* * *

"I GAVE EVERYTHING I HAD!" I yelled as the tears fell from my face. "AND ALL THEY EVER DID WAS ASK FOR MORE!"

"I WAS NOTHING TO THEM! I WAS JUST SOMEONE THEY COULD USE, AND THEN THEY TURNED THEIR BACKS ON ME WHEN I SAID I COULDN'T DO IT ANY MORE!"

"I NEVER ASKED FOR ANYTHING!" I roared into the afternoon sky. " I NEVER WANTED ANYTHING ELSE!"

"AFTER ALL I'VE DONE, WHY COULDN'T I HAVE THIS ONE, SMALL THING?!

"WHY?! I asked as I fell to my knees.

I reached for the butt of my Sig and pulled it out of its holster and cocked it.

And then I put the muzzle to my head.

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?" I roared as loud and as long as I could.

It wasn't the first time I had asked the same question, in the same fashion.

But this was the first time with my pistol in my hand, and pointed at my head.

I knelt there for a long time letting my tears flow until there was nothing left in me.

I then lowered my Sig from my head and stared at my pistol for an even longer time.

Then I pressed the hammer release lever and returned it to its holster, and stood up once more.

I looked out over the river, watching it flow without end.

How ironic the man who wanted so much to have been a SEAL years ago couldn't swim for shit, and yet somehow had managed to survive from drowning in a rushing river while weighed down with weapons and ammo.

It should have killed me. I sink like a stone. I should have drowned. I had nearly drowned twice before. Why not this time?

Why?

* * *

I reached down and splashed some water onto my face and then checked my carbine that had somehow miraculously, managed to stay with me despite my underwater tumble, still hanging by its sling.

I pulled out the 60 round Surefire mag and put it away in one of the vest pockets, and then pulled out a fresh 30 round mag from my combat vest and slapped it into the Mk18's magwell and cycled a round in the chamber.

My ammo was supposed to be waterproof. Hopefully that was true.

If not, well, I just didn't care anymore.

I looked out over the water again and then checked my watch. It would be dark soon, and I needed to move. I looked up at the road behind me and then painfully climbed up the embankment and stared down the road looking for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

I don't know how far I had floated downstream or for how long. All I remember was my plunge into the cold water, my tumbling along the river bottom smashing into every friggin rock there was down there as I tried to free myself from my pack that was not as buoyant as I had hoped, and then a white flash as my head struck something. And then nothing.

And now here I was. Alive and wishing with every part of my being that I wasn't.

But here I was.

And fortunately, I was also on the right side of the river too. Which meant that the teens I had left behind might still be upriver looking for me, or at least walking my direction once they realized I wasn't coming back. And maybe, just maybe, I would run into the kids.

I had nothing else to live for.

* * *

I climbed up the small hill above the road so I could overlook the entire area around me and be able to see anything coming whether friend or foe, as I then stepped up the pace, heading back upriver.

The problem with being alone all the time, is that you have too much time to ponder your thoughts since there's no one around to converse with to help you deal with the things that are bothering you. Such was the case now as I thought about the dream I just had.

When I was in high school, there were only two things I really wanted. A career as a SEAL in the military, and a family of my own, and that's it.

Time and unforeseen circumstances, and in my opinion, some of the decisions I made, ruined any chances I had of ever having both. And through the years, the regret I have had over having achieved neither one gnawed at me constantly.

In a military town like San Antonio where servicemen from all branches of the military were always walking around, once in a while, I would occasionally see a man wearing the Green Beret of a Special Forces Operator or a man wearing the gold Trident of a SEAL, and it would always be a stark reminder to me of what could have been.

Most of them were going through medical training at Fort Sam which was only a mile from where I lived. And each time I saw them, all I could do was think of what might have been if I had chosen the path I had wanted in the first place, but didn't.

And as far as having a family, well, I was never much of a socializer. And when it came to social events, eventually after a while, I stopped going to those too. It would be hard for me to go to a wedding or a baby shower and try to smile when I was as miserable as could be watching the happy couple or the new, expectant parents enjoying their happy occasion. Not wanting to be the dark cloud in the group. I finally just stopped going no matter how many times I was invited.

At work, I could be a different person and laugh and joke with the guys. But the truth was, as soon as the shift was over, I went home and kept to myself. I was never one to hang out with the guys that much anyway. I didn't smoke, drink, or screw around. So basically, I was no life of the party with them either, and as time passed, I stopped hanging around with them altogether as well.

When I became a PMC, it was like being young again. Everything was new, exciting,…..fun. And by the end of my training as I walked up the ramp to the plane on my first OP as a PMC, I was so thrilled that I felt like a rookie fireman again. Eager, excited, scared as hell, but I couldn't think of anywhere else I wanted to be.

And at the time, it was the jolt I desperately needed to want to live life again. I was so stoked, that the only thing that could have made me even happier was if I could turn back the hands of time, and I was in the Navy, and the guys onboard the plane were discreetly handing me the "Budweiser". The symbol that meant I had earned a place amongst them.

My joy was short-lived however, as I found myself separated from my guys and being chased by monsters and men intent on killing me on my very first OP. I was no cadet straight out the Academy and afraid of his own shadow. But in truth, I really was out of my element, although I was managing so far and hadn't gotten myself killed yet.

But when I came across a group of teens and their school nurse, scared and fighting for their lives, everything changed, in more ways than one. Now I WAS in my element, helping people when they needed help the most, and I slid into the role of guardian quite easily.

But the problem was I had made a rookie mistake when I joined them.

* * *

I got personally and emotionally involved with them. And that is dangerous for a rescue worker or military serviceman to do. But it couldn't be helped. For all their quirks, I really began to like them. And after an extremely short time, I had allowed one of them to get too close.

It was my own fault. We are all human, no matter how tough we try to be, but sometimes the heart is more treacherous than we think.

And by allowing one chink in my armor, I had allowed Saeko Busujima to fill the empty void in my heart that cried out for a child of my own. And I had made the fatal mistake of letting her and her friends fill that void and cloud my judgment.

I didn't regret it though. But I also knew I needed to get a better grip on myself, or my own pain was going to get harder to deal with.

And as the sun began to set, I finally heard the familiar sound of a motorcycle approaching from upriver and as I ran towards the sound I saw up ahead and underneath a bridge, the shadowy figures of the teens and their nurse standing around talking.

I wanted so much to shout and wave my arms and let them know I was alive and go running towards them and hug them all and laugh with relief that we had all made it. But I didn't.

I was not a fireman anymore. I was not a family member. And as much as I wished it and even dreamed about it just a short while ago, I was no one's father either. I had no ties to them. I was a foreigner, a stranger to their land. I was a half-ass rookie PMC marooned on an island, who had felt duty-bound to get them home. And was doing a piss-poor job at that.

But since I was a PMC, I needed to start acting like one and make sure my "clients" were not about to be ambushed by unseen attackers. So I scouted the area around them first, to make sure they were safe before I began my approach to where they sat under the bridge.

The street lights were only now beginning to flicker on as the sun was beginning to set. Of course, even if it had been pitch-black, there was no way I could have missed the now familiar angry, shrieking voice of Saya screaming her head off, which was further amplified by echoing underneath the bridge.

I sighed as I heard her screaming angrily.

* * *

"Wonder what Kouta did now?" I said aloud as I stopped for a moment and shook my head. And yet as I listened, I heard another FEMALE voice, screaming angrily back at Saya. And only then did I realize something bigger was going on and not just the regular "Saya and Kouta show" that I had come to know and love.

I couldn't tell what they were saying as the sound of angry words in Japanese echoed across the river filling my ears, but I could tell it was getting ugly, and so I rushed over to the bridge wondering what exactly these kids had gotten themselves into now.

As I peeked over the hill from where I stood and looked down at the road below underneath the bridge, there they were, Saya and Rei trying to kill each other while the rest of the teens held them back with Shizuka crying in the middle trying to restore order.

"Didn't take long for them to completely fall apart now, did it?" I grumbled.

"GEEZ, I leave you kids alone for a few minutes and you're already trying to kill each other." I said, hoping my voice would be enough to distract them from their almost coming to blows.

It worked all right, because every single one of them stopped screaming and kicking and looked up at me, as I stiffly walked down the hill towards them. I guess they were all just too shocked to believe what they were seeing. I admit, I hadn't thought I would survive from being swept away in the river myself.

I guess they must have thought they were seeing a ghost or something the way no one reacted until I finally reached the road and was almost standing amongst them.

"JIMU!" I heard Saeko shriek as she ran towards me and nearly knocked me over as she came at me with out-stretched arms and crashed into me, holding me tightly as she sobbed on my chest.

For an all too brief moment, I didn't see the young woman that was there as I returned her embrace. Instead, I saw the same tiny, little girl with the cute pigtails crying in my arms that I had seen in my dream.

For that brief moment in time, I allowed myself to pretend that I was holding my daughter, the child that I always wanted, and the one that had filled the empty space in my heart and in my life. And I completely forgot about everything and everyone around me, and especially I forgot all about my resolve to not get emotionally involved with them anymore.

I was tired and beaten, and this moment had refreshed me more so than anything else could have, and I was filled with a joy I thought I'd never experience in my life.

"Hey sweetie." I said, as I hugged her tighter.

I felt the eyes of the rest of the group staring at me, and as I looked up, feeling a little embarrassed that I had been focusing all my attention on Saeko and had forgotten about the others.

Sheepishly, I looked at them and smiled.

"Hey guys." I started. "Everyone all righ_,"

"SMACK!"

To my surprise, Saeko suddenly broke away from my embrace and slapped me as hard as she could across my face. The blow had caught me completely off guard and off balance too as I stumbled backwards.

I was taken aback by her hitting me, and I stared in shock at the young girl who now stood there in front of me, her face contorted in anger, eyes filled with fury and hands clenched into fists.

The joy that I was feeling only a moment ago, had once again been dashed to pieces.

* * *

"BAKAAAA!" She screamed at me, tears streaming down her face.

Shizuka watched horrified as Saeko suddenly slapped the American as hard as she could across the face and then yelled at him, calling him "BAKA" as she stood there, angrily glaring at him.

The man shook his head and blinked his eyes, surprised like everyone else by Saeko's sudden outburst. Regaining his composure, he then tried to calm Saeko's fury by speaking light-heartedly,as he usually did.

"Ow. Okay, wow, that was a good one sweetie. " The man said looking into Saeko's angry face. "Dang, Saeko-chan, you really clobbered me there hon,….."

"**SMACK!" **Saeko slapped the man again even HARDER as he stumbled back from the blow.

"AAH! DAMMIT SAEKO!" The man said rubbing his cheek." TAKE IT EASY WILL YOU?! I said I was sor,.."

"**SMACK!"** The man swore as Saeko slapped him once more on the other side of his face.

"DAMMIT! THAT'S ENOUGH SAEKO! CUT IT OUT! The man roared and then tried to defend himself as Saeko then suddenly began pummeling him with her fists and screaming "BAKA!" over and over again.

The rest of the group watched in shock as Saeko rained a succession of blows on the American as he tried to block her angry attack. Growing frustrated at being assaulted, the American managed to grab both of Saeko's arms and tried to restrain her.

Her fury growing, Saeko then angrily tried to shake him off with a jujitsu throw on him that failed because of his size.

The man then effortlessly picked her up by the waist and lifted her off the ground screaming, punching and kicking him in mindless fury.

"SAEKO!" The man yelled." STOP IT ALREADY! WILL YOU CUT IT OUT, PLEASE? DAMMIT SAEKO, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!

"I HATE YOU!" Saeko screamed, and then suddenly stopped her struggling and began crying again.

Shizuka saw the man react in stunned silence at Saeko's words, and then she saw him close his eyes, a pained expression on his face.

"I hate you." She repeated as the man gently let her down and released her.

Saeko turned around and looked at the man, tears streaming from her face as she glared at him.

There was no anger in the man's eyes, only the same intense sadness that she had seen when he had been hanging off the bridge just before he let go and plunged into the river below.

Saeko's furious onslaught was spent, but her anger was still there.

"WHY?!" She said, the pain of anger and sorrow in her voice unmistakable. "Why didn't you wait for us to help you? We were almost there. Why didn't you just climb down a bit more were they couldn't reach you? WHY DID YOU JUMP?!"

The American didn't answer, as he merely lowered his head and just stood there as Saeko continued to unleash her wrath on him.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!'' Saeko screamed, the tears beginning to flow even more now. "I thought you were dead and now your back acting as if nothing had happened and MAKING JOKES! "

"IT'S NOT FUNNY YOU IDIOT! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! I HATE YOU! " Saeko screamed as it appeared that she was about to assault the man once again, but only fell against him sobbing as he held her.

The American held the young teen as she cried, his eyes staring ahead blankly as he listened to her anguished sobs.

The rest of the teens had their own grievance against the American that they wished to voice, and they did not hold back either.

"Why DID you jump?!" Saya yelled, as tears fell down her face as well. "Why did you keep going in the first place if it was so dangerous!? Why did you shoot if you knew you were going to be attacked!?"

" WHY DID YOU DO THAT, YOU IDIOT?!" Saya shrieked as she burst into tears also, as Shizuka reached over and held her.

"Jimu-san? Shizuka said, trying to keep her emotions in control, as tears fell down her face. "Don't you understand how upset you've made everyone by what you've done? It was reckless and stupid, and I hope you know that.

"I don't know who you are or what you are." Rei said, staring angrily at the American. "But you really messed things up by your stupid stunt.

You said you would get everyone home safe and then you almost got killed because you just had to go off by yourself and be a hero. Now look at everyone around you. EVERYONE'S MISERABLE BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"I had thought that what you did was very brave." Kouta said as he held my rifle. "But now I don't know. Maybe there was something else you could have done or tried, or maybe just waited till we could help you."

"I don't know what to think." Kouta said, looking away.

Of all of them, only Takashi said nothing. But the look in his eyes spoke volumes. And they did not approve of my actions either.

That was it then.

Everything I had done to help them and keep them alive was forgotten.

As far as they were concerned, I was reckless and a fool.

* * *

The truth was, I knew they were only upset at seeing me nearly die in front of them. And I really shouldn't take it personally.

In truth, I was also ashamed of myself for having hurt them.

Even though I had gotten attached to them the past couple of days, I had never expected them to really care about what happened to me. Even Saeko, I believed would soon forget all about me and get on with her life.

We were just strangers trying to survive after all, or so I thought.

There are many friends and family who know me back home, but the truth is, it was the other members of my family, my father, my mother, and my younger brother that everyone else really enjoyed being around.

My mother has a gift for sparking up a conversation about anything that will last for hours with her friends or even complete strangers.

My father is very popular with many of our family friends, especially since many of them have worked with him in construction over the years.

And my younger brother has always been popular amongst his friends. In truth, if not for my brother, I would have no social life whatsoever.

I have always been a bit of a loner I suppose, although not on purpose. When I was a teen in high school and later as a Paramedic and as a Firefighter, I got along great with everyone I worked with.

But the truth is, I've usually been content being alone most of the time and enjoy the freedom of being able to come and go as I please. Although there are times I do admit that I wish that I was more outgoing and able to socialize with others.

Over time though, I began to notice that I was really not able to have a great conversation with anyone unless he or she was a fellow medic or firefighter or cop. It seemed I could barely socialize with anyone who wasn't in the same line of work as I was.

And even when I was in the company of friends and family, I would unitentionally clam up, and avoid talking about my job or work with anyone who wasn't in the Service. Eventually, it came down to that I was just there taking up space, and, people just carried on their conversations as if I weren't even there.

I couldn't blame them though. No one likes being around a dark cloud, I suppose.

But as time passed, I really began to feel as if no one really cared, outside of my family, whether I was alive or not, and eventually, I was starting to be proven right, and I knew it was my entire fault.

It was only a couple years before I retired from the Fire Service that the bitter reality that I might pass from this earth without anyone knowing or caring that I even existed began to hit me.

I knew that my family would miss me, of course. But I had no close friends other than my brother, and the men and women I worked with, and even then, I never confided with anyone at work about my problems. They had their own families and worries to deal with.

Many people lament the fact that they have never married or had a successful relationship with anyone, and for many years I was also miserable that I was never able to find someone to share my life with, and now, it seemed that it was far too late to even try.

What made it even harder now though, was the fact that I never had children, especially a daughter that I always hoped my wife and I would have. Most people in the Latino community rejoice in the birth of a couple having a son, but I have always cherished the thought of having a daughter, or actually daughters. Most people have thought that kind of odd, but the truth is, I like the idea of having a "daddy's girl" I could spoil rotten, running around.

When I left Texas, I gave up all hope on ever having a family of my own or enjoying the company of people I used to call friend. When I became a PMC, what friends I had left dropped me like a hot potato, and with the exception of my mother and my brother, so had the rest of my family. I really was an outcast now and as far as my future was concerned. I truly expected to be buried and forgotten by all in some lonely wasteland somewhere. And as a PMC, that was really a strong possibility.

Now, I was holding a young girl in my arms crying her eyes out, angry and saddened because I nearly lost my life a while ago while trying to keep her and her friends from being killed.

And now, not just her, but EVERY single one of them was angry with me.

I had not been expecting this.

* * *

I looked down at the young girl in my arms, as she still held on to me, despite the fact that she had already stopped crying, and then I looked upon the angry faces of the group around me.

"'Everyone, I'm sorry that I've upset all of you." I began, and then looked down at Saeko. "Especially you, Saeko-chan." I said as I kissed the top of her head.

"The last thing I wanted to do was hurt any of you, or cause you more pain on top of what you've already had to go through since this nightmare began. All I've wanted to do is get all of you home safe to your families. Not cause you more pain."

"I don't have a wife or any children guys." I said, as I stroked the top of Saeko's head. "And I can't imagine how your families are feeling right now that their children are lost in the city somewhere while monsters are roaming around killing anything in their path. I want to get you home, because if I were your father I'd pray that someone would please take care of my child and bring them home safely."

Everyone in the group looked down at the ground, each of them thinking of their families I'm certain, and each of them missing their families and worried that they might not see them again.

"Why do you care if we find our families, or not?" Saya asked, the familiar scowl on her face missing for once. "You don't know any of us. What does a soldier care what happens us?"

"Does it matter?" I said giving her a smile. "I just have my reasons, and I told you pumpkin, I'm not a soldier."

"WHAT are you then?" Rei asked, still angry. "And why would you risk your life for us anyway?"

I gave a deep sigh, and looked out at all of them, and judging from the looks on their faces, I had better tell them something.

"As far as what I am, I'm a PMC." I said at last, waiting for their reaction.

"PMC?" Shizuka asked.

"Private Military Contractor." Kouta said, looking at me with a little more of the hero worship returning to his eyes. "I KNEW IT! You ARE former American Military, AREN'T YOU?!"

"Oh geez, not that again." I thought, rolling my eyes.

"Private Military Contractor. What's that?" Takashi said in perfect English.

"A mercenary." Saya said, straightening her glasses, her scowl returning.

"That still doesn't make sense." Rei said staring hard at me. I could see that the investigative instincts of her police detective father ran strong in her veins. She definitely sounded like a detective trying to interrogate a perp. "So what does a mercenary care about what happens to us?"

"I wasn't always a mercenary, Rei-chan." I said, as I smiled at her and shrugged my shoulders.

"Well what were you?" Rei said getting a little exasperated. Evidently she thought I was still being too vague on answering her questions. And she was right.

I had thought long and hard about telling these kids my true identity from the very beginning, but after thinking about it, I decided that I didn't want to share that with them till they were safe with their families. It wasn't because I was embarrassed about my past or anything like that. But in a world filled with blood-thirsty monsters and school teachers turning psychotic, which would you feel safer traveling with, a trained mercenary or a friendly neighborhood firefighter?

"Let's just say, that my job before I became a merc was to help people, and let's leave it at that for now." I said, and then continued, "I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you."

My joke came at the risk of another slap. But I didn't want to talk about myself any more than I had to.

"But YOU could have been killed!" Shizuka said, still angry.

I chuckled a bit at her comment, despite the possibility of Saeko slapping me again.

"That's nothing new sensei, I've spent my entire life putting my life at risk for the sake of others." I said. "And I've nearly been killed several times in the past for people I never even knew. "

"But this time. " I said looking at Saeko's face as she looked up at me. "This time, it was for people I do know, and people that I do care about a lot."

"Especially YOU, Saeko-chan." I said, wiping the tears off her cheeks.

"ME?" She said, puzzled.

" I have always wished for a wife and child of my own, especially a daughter." I explained. "But few people, have ever acted as if they even cared that I was alive, much less risked their own life to save mine."

"And no one has EVER has ever called me "Uncle" before. " I said smiling at her.

"So yes, when I saw you and Takashi trying to come and rescue me, the only thing I could think of was trying to keep you from getting killed, because I knew you wouldn't stop otherwise."

"I could never have lived with myself if ANY of you ever got hurt or killed because of me." I said looking at all of them.

"And most certainly I would not want to live knowing someone that I thought of as my daughter would have been hurt or killed because of me." I said looking back at Saeko.

Saeko looked at me, her eyes red and puffy as I looked into the face of the teen that I held in my arms, once again seeing the tiny girl in my dream with the pig-tails looking up at me, and for as long as I lived, I guess that's how I would always see Saeko Busujima.

I suppose all fathers look at their daughters the same way no matter how much they've grown.

I wasn't Saeko's father, but I still thought of her as mine. I would face the pain of that choice later.

I had resolved to not get so emotionally attached to her or the rest of these teens as we traveled. Because I knew that in the end, if we survived, I would have to watch them return joyfully with their families as I returned to the shadows of anonymity, and carry on again, alone.

When I was walking on the hill towards the bridge earlier, I had thought it would be best to treat them as "clients" and began to detach myself from them as much as I could and lessen the pain of our parting. But not because I felt that they wouldn't be able to get along without me, of course they could, they would have their families back.

I was doing it so that the pain of letting THEM go wouldn't affect ME as much. And I believed that eventually, I could push them far enough away that I wouldn't miss them as much when the time came to say goodbye.

As soon as I saw them though, I realized I was only fooling myself.

* * *

I leaned down and kissed Saeko on her forehead, and released her from my embrace. I then reached for her hand and led her to the rest of the group, and then looked at them, and I opened my mouth to speak.

"I'm sorry that I upset all of you. And I want you to know I care about all of you very much. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you care about me as well. And I will never forget it. I have my reasons for everything that I've done and for how far I'm willing to go to make sure all of you get home to your families alive and safe, even though my reasons may not make any sense to you ."

"But to be honest," I continued, "You only have to ask your selves this one question to understand my reasons why."

They all looked at me, confusion on their faces as they waited for me to finish.

"How far would any of YOU go to make sure that ALL of you got home safely?" I said.

I could see that each one wanted to protest and say more, but I held up my hand to silence them.

"I don't mean to be rude guys, but right now, I need to be alone for a bit." I said as I turned around and walked towards the hill behind me.

"JIMU-SAN! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Saeko said in alarm.

"Don't worry hon." I said looking back at her and giving her a weak smile. " I'm just going right over here on the top of the bridge, I just need some time alone guys."

"Ya'll can come get me when ya'll want to get moving again." I said as I walked back up the hill and stood on the bridge scanning our surroundings.

The group of teens and their nurse watched the man disappear up the small hill, each of them pondering on the man's words.

They had all resolved to help one another to survive no matter what. But none had considered how far they were willing to go to insure the other's survival. The American had nearly given everything he had for their lives, without hesitation.

And now each of them were now looking deep into themselves and pondering an answer to the American's simple question. How far WOULD they be willing to go, to make sure they all survived?

None of them spoke for a long while as none could find an immediate answer.

I had left the group behind for a little bit so that all of us could cool off and hopefully my words would reach them, so I wouldn't be clobbered again later, But I also wanted to stand guard as well and keep an eye out for our friends from earlier, who might be stupid enough, or high enough to attempt to try to get a little payback for the death of their friends up the road.

But I really did need some time alone with my thoughts as well.

So much had happened today in such a short span of time.

I had nearly been killed in my sleep by a psychotic schoolteacher who I'd witnessed murder a young boy and threatened to kill him myself. I had taken a HUGE risk of doing a recon ALONE amongst a swarm of Infected who had come close to killing me as I opened fire on a bunch of street thugs who had attacked the kids.

I had KILLED four people. Scum or not, they were still LIVING people, and while I was now a PMC and not a fireman anymore, it was not something I was proud of, even though it was the only thing I could do at the time.

I had then nearly drowned because I had decided to sacrifice myself so that two teens wouldn't be killed in a suicidal attempt to save my life. And then I had been slapped silly by a young woman that I began to think of as a daughter and gotten chewed out by the rest of the group that were still angry at me and thought me a fool for risking my life the way I had.

And to be honest, I was beginning to think they were right.

But there was one more thing that was bothering me, and I needed to get away from them for a little while before I re-joined them.

In a moment of bitter anguish, I had tried to kill myself.

And only one thing had stopped me.

* * *

My Sig P226-NSW 9mm is a double-action combat pistol. There are NO safeties.

Whenever I squeeze the trigger with the hammer down, it takes six pounds of pressure on the trigger to shoot.

Whenever the hammer is cocked, it only takes two pounds of pressure on the trigger to shoot.

The hammer was cocked when I pointed the muzzle at my right temple, and I had just put my finger on the trigger after crying out at the top of my lungs when I saw her.

In the farthest reaches of my mind, the image of the little girl with the pig-tails looked at me and screamed "DADDY NO!" and then disappeared.

For a moment, I believed I was finally losing my mind, and that maybe my anguish had finally driven me over the edge.

I looked out over the river for a long time.

And then I began wondering why I hadn't drowned. And then, I wondered why the image of Saeko as a tot had popped in my mind as I was already squeezing the trigger.

And as I looked out over the water, lost in thought, I was reminded why I had done everything that I had up to this point. And I realized, I needed to snap out of it.

Their safety and their lives were more important than my pain. As I've preached before, it's not about "you", it's about "them".

I hadn't finished what I started, and I needed to get my butt in gear and get them to their families and to safety.

And when I picked myself up and set foot this way, that was exactly what I intended to do.

And now here I was alone on a bridge once again, and everybody that I had sacrificed everything for,_

Were all pissed off at me.

Sometimes you just can't win.

* * *

Author's notes:

First, I wished to point a couple things out. I realize that the character Jim screaming into the sky and pointing a gun to his head may offend some people. That was never the intent. I sincerely apologize in advance.

The point behind writing that scene was to show the character's anguish, not to advocate suicide.

I almost didn't write that scene because I didn't want to be offensive.

But I know I've had days were I've wanted to scream out loud, especially after dealing with some of the ugly things I've had to deal with at work and in life, and so I wrote it in.

But no, I've never gone so far as to put a gun to my head.

That was just for the story.

Writing that the character Jim screaming out his pain and bitterness was to help show just how anguished he feels after having the only small moment of joy he's ever really had and then have it ripped away from him.

And after all the character has been through in his life and now has NO joy left, I wanted to show just how much he has also become dependent on the teen's especially Saeko, to even try to keep going on.

I also wanted to help explain why he has become so attached to the group as well as to Saeko, and why he's willing to sacrifice so much for everyone.

And for all those military personnel who might be reading this story. Jim's interest in the SEAL Teams will be elaborated on more as the story continues. As you can see by reading this chapter, it was one of his biggest regrets that he couldn't sign up in his youth and was the main reason he became a PMC later on in life.

My sincerest respect to all of the guy's in the TEAM's. I couldn't even begin to say how much I personally appreciate your dedication and sacrifice.

Thanks again to everyone for your support. I hope that all of you are still enjoying the story. The next Chapter should be the one to wrap up "Crossroads", and hopefully things will get a lot smoother for Jim, Shizuka and the kids.

Yeah right.

Thanks again everyone!


	17. Chapter 16-Crossroads-Part Six

Last Alarm

Chapter 16

"Crossroads" Part Six

* * *

There are two sides to every story.

I know how most people would have felt going out of their way to give a helping hand to someone, and then have that same someone slap their hand away and then tell them that their kindness is not needed, not wanted, not appreciated, and they are an idiot for even trying to help.

Most people would be a little hurt to say the least having their act of kindness thrown back at them like a slap in the face.

Of course, being LITERALLY slapped in the face, hurts like hell too.

The job description of a Fireman, Paramedic, Policeman or Soldier in the employee handbook of any nation that they serve is all basically the same. The main thing we have in common in all four branches that is the core reason for our existence is "The preservation of life." The rest is unique to their branch of service, but the main focus is the same.

Patriotism, politics, religious viewpoints aside, THAT is the main focus of those of us that go out to protect our fellowman, whether we use a fire hose, a defibrillator, service pistol, or combat rifle. Our job is preserving YOUR life, period.

It's not naïve sentiment, it's the truth. Even if one country is at war with another country, the job for the Military and the First Responders is still the preservation of either countryman's lives, if no one else's.

Holding a person who is grieving because their newborn has died in their crib from SIDS, trying to comfort a person who is depressed and wishes to commit suicide, holding a person's hand as they are dying and don't want to be alone as they feel the end coming, rushing to grab a brother police officer who has been wounded under fire, throwing yourself on a grenade to save your buddies from being killed….

Sacrificing your life so that someone else can go back to their families, while YOUR family mourns your loss.

None of these things are in the job description of any employee handbook anywhere. And yet those are but a few of the many examples of self-sacrifice that all of us do every day, even to the point of sacrificing our lives for people we don't even know.

Such acts of kindness, acts of courage, bravery, mercy, valor, duty, honor, sacrifice, are not written in any textbook anywhere for any person to adhere to.

Those acts come from deep within.

And there is no amount of money that could ever pay for that kind of loving kindness and self-sacrifice that any taxpayer, city manager, or politician of any kind could ever put a price tag on, even though sometimes, some of them try to.

For those kind of people, it's easy to put a price tag on a human life when it's not your own.

Our job is to help people when they can't help themselves. But sometimes, we're just too late. And then unfortunately, we incur the wrath of those who have been victimized, who have no one else they can vent their anger and frustrations on, and so decide to take it out on the very ones who came to help.

People can say or do some horrible things when they're upset, angry, or grieving. Contrary to what people may think, we do NOT get paid to be punching bags to be yelled at or assaulted when things go wrong.

For those who have lost a loved one, you cannot blame someone who has suffered such a horrible loss from taking their pain out on you. When people are calling for help, the sound of the approaching siren gives them a sense of hope. A hope that the people that are coming are going to make everything better, and once they're there, everything will be all right.

Unfortunately, sometimes there's nothing we can do. And the hope that people had at our arrival is shattered, and the reality that their loved one is gone forever has caused some to lash out at everyone around them.

You can't fault a person who is experiencing that kind of pain for the things they say or do. Especially, when it's a close family member or a child that has died.

I myself have been cursed, shoved, punched, kicked, beaten, and bitten by many who decided to take their wrath out on us. But those people weren't grieving over a loved one who died.

They were just drunk.

But for those who were grieving, I let them take their pain out on me because of their grief, and didn't blame them for it at all, although I felt like shit afterwards.

But again, putting up with that is not in any employee handbook.

Mercy, kindness, patience, comfort, sacrifice, all comes from within.

But we deal with it as best we can, and in many cases, bite our lip and take it regardless of how much we want to lash out sometimes ourselves. And we do our best to forget stuff like that when we get off work and try not to take that ugliness back to our families.

The old saying "We work hard so we play hard" is sometimes true with most of the people who have to deal with this stuff. People do whatever they can to deal with the stress of the job, or for the Military people, the stress of combat.

Drinking, partying, smoking, whatever. And you can't blame any of them for going into excess sometimes.

Myself, I try to relax as best as I can and deal with it without the use of alcohol, or a wild lifestyle. I've seen what that stuff can do to good people, and want no part of it. I've seen too much already to become that which I have to help scrape off the pavement more than a few times in my career.

The bad thing is, since I don't drink, smoke, and indulge in "other" forms of "recreation", I'm stuck with the images and the stress of work long after I'm home.

So I read a book, listen to music, and drink coffee or tea to relax and get my mind off things.

Some days are harder than most though to get through.

Public Service and Military life are not jobs for those who wish glory, fame and admiration. People may not mean to be cruel, but sometimes they forget that we are there for them, and lash out at us as if we were the cause of their pain.

That we became the reason why their loved one was dead because we didn't get their fast enough, or that their house was lost because we didn't dive into an inferno and put it out, or that their brand new car is wrecked because we had to cut it apart to get them out, never mind that it was their drunk driving that caused several other cars to wreck as well.

And I can't even imagine what the Police and Military folks have to deal with.

And then sometimes the things we suffer from people's anger gets downright ridiculous.

But again, it's not about "us", it's about "them". And so we deal with people's resentment and move on.

And just like everyone else on the job, I bit my lip and took it,

And I took it.

And I took it.

And I took it some more.

And after 26 years of taking it, when I was finally at my wit's end and wanted to blow up and lash out at anyone who dared to push me too far.

I swallowed my anger and took it some more.

No matter how ugly things got, I still loved what I did, and other peoples lashing out at me wasn't the reason I left. I've got much thicker skin than that.

Of course, things hadn't changed for me that much when I left the Fire Service though.

As a matter of fact, they got worse, because now here I was in a different career field as a PMC, in a different country, getting shot at by the local police, nearly murdered by a public educator, and trying to keep from ending up being served up as South Texas cuisine and eaten by the local populace.

And now, despite all that, I had still bent over backwards trying to help a bunch of teens and their school nurse survive a biological disaster of epic proportions, and had nearly died trying to keep them alive.

And what did they do to repay my kindness?

Well, déjà vu.

Their idea of saying "Arigato gozaimasu" was to slap the shit out of me and then scream and yell at me for scaring them, after watching me nearly die trying to keep them from getting killed.

NOT for putting their lives at risk.

NOT for nearly getting them killed.

NOT for making them do anything.

But for scaring them.

From having to watch me nearly die in front of them.

Hmmmmm…

My goodness …

How totally inconsiderate of me.

I am totally remiss.

Bad Jimu, bad mercenary.

I know, I must have missed something,…..somewhere.

So if YOU can figure out why exactly I deserved to be slapped, punched, and kicked by one teen and called an idiot by the rest, I'd appreciate it if you could come up here and explain it to me.

Because as I stand here on top of this bridge with a sore face, beaten body, and crushed spirit, I'm still trying to figure out where I went wrong, myself.

* * *

Actually no, that's not true.

I understood exactly why they were so angry at me, and believe it or not, I didn't blame them.

Although it did hurt immensely when Saeko had said she hated me. I wasn't mad at her though, she had obviously been the most affected when everyone thought I'd been killed. And she only lashed out at me because of the pain she was feeling. I know she didn't mean it.

It just hurt to hear her say it.

They weren't really angry at me because I'd done something wrong.

They were angry because I had nearly died.

And they didn't want me to die.

They wanted me to live.

Because all of them really cared about me.

And the one that cared about me the most had beaten the hell out of me just to show me just how much she really cared about me.

I'm just glad she didn't use her bokken or I would have been a dead man.

A man can only take so much affection.

Seriously though, as First Responders, we were never around long enough for anyone to ever care WHO we were, much less what happened to us on scene or after the call was over.

We would do everything we could do for the victim, and then move on to the next. Most people are concerned about their loved ones, or their own life, not the people there to help them. And we were always too busy responding to another emergency to try to take the time to get acquainted.

So for someone to even bother worrying about the lives of their rescuers during an emergency is often unheard of.

A civilian telling a fireman, paramedic, policeman or soldier not to go in harm's way because they don't want you to get hurt,….wow.

An entire group of people angry at me for risking my life to prevent them from getting hurt or killed and nearly dying trying to save their lives, well,….words escape me.

All along I had been worrying about the lives of the civilians in my care, and I had done everything I could for their care and benefit, even almost dying to keep them safe.

And all along I had been worrying that I was getting too personally attached to them, and that I should back off.

I never figured that they would have gotten personally attached to me.

And now, I realized just how badly I had messed up by allowing myself to get too close to them.

Hoo, boy, it was too unreal.

I could just hear every Firefighter, Paramedic, Policeman, Military man and woman, Spec Ops Operator, and fellow PMC around the world laughing at my ass for the situation I had gotten myself into.

Jim C_, former Firefighter-Paramedic.

Current designation, Private Military Contractor/ Medic

And now a new title.

"Father Goose."

* * *

I laughed as I shook my head at the situation I had brought upon myself, and then wondered what my next plan of action would be now that I was on everyone's shit list.

My personal mission to get them to their families hadn't changed. And it didn't matter if they liked me or not, I was still going to accomplish that somehow. Still, trying to lead a group of people to safety who hates your guts would be a lot more difficult now than before.

As I stood there in the shadows, alone with my thoughts, a plan formed in my mind that seemed the best way to resolve this issue between the group and myself and I pondered on the best way to execute it.

It was definitely not a conventional plan. As a matter of fact, most people would have thought it crazy once they heard it. But considering what had happened to us within the past 36 hours, it actually made the most sense, especially if the worst were to happen to us again. The hard part was convincing the people in my party, who at the moment, were none too keen about anything I had to say. And after listening to my plan, they were sure to think I had gone nuts.

Most people I worked with often gave me a hard time about always assuming the worst when we went out on a call, back when I was a fireman.

Unfortunately, I had to think that way. I had learned that hard lesson in the past and after reading many accounts of older generations of firemen and the things they experienced, as well as the stories of soldiers in combat, I had to agree along with all of them, that there's one thing that holds true when it comes to preparing yourself mentally for a plan of action.

Thinking positive may be good for morale, but it means absolute dick if the shit hits the fan and you're not prepared for the worst possible scenario that can happen.

If you prepare for the worst, then it is not so much a heavy blow to you when it DOES occur, and you're somewhat ready for it and can deal with it much better than a person who doesn't prepare for the worst and keeps hoping that things will work out if you just think positive.

Faith, trust and pixie dust might work for Peter Pan, but happy thoughts weren't really going to fly if I really did get killed and the kids had to survive on their own. These kids looked like they were better prepared to handle themselves than most teens their age, but I couldn't rely on that assumption and hope things would turn out all right if the worst were to happen.

And as I listened to the teens talking below, the details of the plan began to form into my mind. And as it began to piece together, I chuckled a little bit thinking about the look on the teen's faces when I told them what we were going to do.

Saeko watched the American walk off alone after apologizing to all of them, and as he was walking up the hill, a sharp pang of guilt twisted inside her at the look the man had given her before he had turned around and walked away.

"What have I done?" Saeko thought in dismay as she watched him disappear at the top of the hill." How could I have done those horrible things to him? "

"Sensei. I didn't mean it.''Sako said looking into Shizuka's face. "I didn't mean to hurt him. I didn't mean to say I hated….." Saeko tried to say before she fell into the nurse's arms and burst into tears.

"I know you didn't mean it, Saeko-chan. I know." Shizuka said as she held her while she wept.

"And so does Jimu-san." Shizuka said, as she tried to comfort the grief-stricken girl.

* * *

Takashi sighed deeply as the American disappeared up the hill and shook his head. He had been angry with himself because the man had been doing so much to help them all this time and had then willingly sacrificed himself to prevent Saeko and Takashi from attempting to help him in what would have definitely been a suicidal rescue attempt for the both of them if they had continued any further.

Not to mention he had also saved everyone's lives when the street gang had gotten the upper hand over them by opening fire and killing some of their attackers, and driving the rest away. Even though he must have known the report from his sniper rifle would have caused dozens of Infected to attack him.

It had all been a brave, selfless act. And from all appearances, a fatal one as well, when he had fallen off the bridge and plunged into the river below.

And after finding no signs that the American had survived his fall and assuming that he was dead, Takashi had then tried to re-organize everyone with Saeko's help and continue on with their journey despite the fact that everyone had been more affected by the American's "death" than they had all realized.

And just when they were beginning to pull together as a team, it seemed everyone just completely fell apart over a minor misunderstanding. And then they all started fighting amongst each other, almost coming to blows.

And Takashi's frustration with himself grew because he had been powerless to stop it.

And now, much to everyone's surprise, the American had turned up unexpectedly, and had obviously not drowned after all. But instead of being overjoyed that their friend was still alive, everyone had then vented their anger and frustration out on HIM.

Saeko, enraged, had even attacked him, screaming all the while that she had hated him. And on top of that everyone else had done nothing but rebuke and insult the man for his self-sacrifice.

Takashi had been silent when everyone had been venting at the American. But after seeing the man's face as he left, and knowing exactly how far the American had gone to keep them alive, Takashi could keep silent no longer.

Seeing the troubled look on his face, Rei walked up to him and reached for his arm.

"Takashi, what's wrong?" She asked, puzzled by his mood.

Takashi slapped her hand away, and stared angrily at her as she backed away, wide-eyed and shocked at his reaction.

* * *

"THAT WAS STUPID! ALL OF IT!" He yelled much to the shock of everyone around him, who also stared wide-eyed at him as he spun around to face them. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ALL OF US?!"

"Komuro!" Rei said, recovering from her initial shock. "What are you talking about?"

"All of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!" Takashi said, continuing to glare at everyone.

"Just earlier all of you were crying because we all thought Jimu-san was dead. And now he comes back after nearly getting killed trying to save our lives, and then all of you HIT HIM,YELL AT HIM, CALL HIM A FOOL, AND SAY HOW ANGRY WE ARE WITH HIM BECAUSE HE UPSET US?!"

"WHAT KIND OF STUPIDITY IS THAT?!" Takashi yelled angrily.

"And you two." Takashi said looking at Rei and Saya. "You two were almost going to KILL each other because you were angry that you thought he was dead and started blaming each other for it. And as soon as he turns up alive, you yell at him as if it's HIS FAULT that you were fighting!"

"WELL WHY DIDN"T YOU SAY ANYTHING IF YOU THOUGHT WE WERE BEING TOO HARD ON HIM?!" Rei shot back. "ALL YOU DID WAS STAND THERE!

"BECAUSE I WAS ASHAMED!" Takashi yelled, and then stood quietly for a moment staring at the ground as everyone stared at him, and everyone could very well see that he was indeed quite upset with himself as well as with them.

"I was ashamed to say anything, because I was upset at seeing what he did for us too. I was angry because he gave up his life so we could live. I was angry because he was here doing what I SHOULD BE DOING FOR ALL OF YOU!"

"Instead all I did was mess things up." Takashi said, looking away from them.

* * *

"That's not true!" Saya quickly responded, feeling guilty about her role in the argument. "You did everything you could to help us when we were attacked, and you also did a great job of leading us here to safety."

"But we're NOT safe, Takagi-san!" Takashi said, looking at her. "We're not safe, and the man that has been taking most of the risks and doing most of the fighting is standing alone above us while we fight like little kids beneath him!"

Rei opened her mouth to speak, and then quickly changed her mind. Takashi was right; the way they had all talked to the American had been cruel and unwarranted. The whole thing seemed so ridiculous now, and the guilt within her began to surface.

She had been upset after seeing the man drown and because of a simple misunderstanding; she had made things worse by losing her temper and fighting with Saya.

"I was so angry with Takagi-san when she said that I was the reason that Jimu-san was dead, and I wanted to make her sorry she said that." Rei blurted out loud, as everyone looked at her.

"Gomen nasai." Saya said, feeling badly for her words. "I was wrong to say what I did. Please forgive me."

"No Takagi-san, I wasn't angry because I thought that what you said was wrong. I was angry because I believed that what you said was RIGHT." Rei said bursting into tears as Saya looked at her shocked.

"I DID act like a spoiled little girl and ran away when we were on the bus. And because I did that Komuro-kun and I weren't here when all of you needed us, and because of that all THIS happened."

"IT IS my fault." Rei said finally breaking down. And I was so angry at myself that I couldn't even face it and yelled at HIM and said that HE was the reason everyone was miserable!"

"What kind of person does that?!" Rei said as she covered her face with her hands as Saya came up and held her trying to comfort the same person that just moments before, she had tried to tear apart.

"It's not your fault Miyamoto-san." Saya said as she started crying also.

"I was angry at him because he acts like it was nothing." Saya said looking at the ground. "I thought he was stupid for risking his life the way he did for us. We're not even his real family and he still treats us like we are, and he nearly died."

"And I'm still angry at him because of what he just said." Saya said her face twisted in anger. "I'm angry at him because I don't know if I CAN DO what he did if any of you were in danger." Saya said, as tears ran down her face.

"And I'm still angry at him because I STILL think it was stupid and I'm ASHAMED of myself for feeling that way!" Saya yelled as she started to cry as well.

* * *

"I thought what he did was very brave." Kouta interrupted, as he looked at everyone. "I thought it was very brave and I admired his courage. And I hoped I could be brave enough to sacrifice my life if something should ever happen too."

"But I didn't stand up for him when I KNEW just how much courage it took for him to do what he had done!" Kouta said angrily. "I saw everyone yelling at him and I saw how it was tearing him apart inside and instead of defending him, I caved and told him that what I thought he did was foolish too!"

"And now I hate myself for doing that!" Kouta yelled, turning away from everyone.

Takashi walked over and placed his hand on the shoulder of his friend.

"I hate that I said nothing at all." Takashi said quietly, trying to help comfort Kouta. "You at least said he was brave. I didn't even do THAT." Takashi said, shaking his head.

"It was those damn shoes." Shizuka said abruptly, surprising everyone.

* * *

"Eh? What did you say sensei?" Takashi asked, puzzled. Shizuka had spoken so abruptly as he was speaking, that what she had said had not made any sense.

"Those stupid shoes." Shizuka said more loudly, the bitterness in her voice very evident.

"I started this whole mess because I was so upset thinking he had died over those damned shoes."

"I was angry because he put himself in so much danger trying to help me over a STUPID blister!"

"And I was ashamed too, Komuro-chan.'' Shizuka said looking up at Takashi. "I thought he was dead because of me and I was so angry that he died for something so stupid."

"But when he came back, I was so happy for YOU Saeko-chan." Shizuka said looking at Saeko whose eyes widened at Shizuka's words.

"I was so happy for you because I knew it hurt you the most when we thought he was dead." Shizuka said as she stroked Saeko's long hair. "And it hurt me so much to see you so sad because he was gone and I knew how much he meant to you."

"And at the same time when he came back I wanted to slap him too for nearly dying over something so STUPID as SHOES!" Shizuka said, as she burst into tears.

"STUPID, STUPID, MAN!" Shizuka said bitterly as she looked up towards the hill.

"When he gets back, I'm going to beat him over the head with those shoes!" Shizuka said as a joke, laughing despite herself.

* * *

Everyone smiled at her remark as well. Each of them felt terrible for the way they had treated the American. But at the same time, the pain of his death had affected them more than they realized. And only now were they finally able to come to grips with their pain, and able to speak of it openly.

Saeko looked down at the ground after listening to Shizuka's words. She HAD been happy to see Jimu was alive after all, and as she held him, she never wanted to let him go again. It was the closest feeling she had to feeling that her own father had returned to her.

But she had also suddenly grown angry as he spoke so calmly, as if nothing had happened, and the pain she had felt of thinking he had died trying to prevent her from saving him earlier, infuriated her and she slapped him for throwing his life away so needlessly, and couldn't stop hitting him until her anger was spent.

And even now, she was STILL upset with him. But after watching him walk away so dejected, she no longer wanted to be angry at him, and the sad look on his face made her feel guilty for lashing out at him the way she had, and the conflicted feelings she had were tearing her up inside.

Shizuka gazed upon the faces of everyone and realized that while everyone had vented their feelings, all of them were still very miserable. And the only way to make things right was to have the one person who was the focus of everyone's grief right here in front of them, to listen to everyone's concerns.

Right now however, nothing was being accomplished except that everyone was becoming more miserable.

"All right everyone, that's enough." The nurse said in a firm voice. "We can keep criticizing each other all day for the way we treated Jimu-san when he was only trying to help us, and it will accomplish nothing. "

"The truth is we were ALL upset at nearly losing him and we obviously DON'T want him to get hurt or killed. And I'm assuming that now we all agree, we don't want him to do EVERYTHING to protect us by himself and risk his life as well just because he feels he has to, agreed?"

Everyone around nodded in agreement at Shizuka's words.

"Good, so when he gets back I think that we should ALL get together and have a nice LONG talk with him later, and get this horrible mess straightened out." Shizuka said. "But for now, I think we should call it a day and spend the night at a place I know nearby."

"You know someplace where we can stay for the night?" Takashi asked.

"Yes, it's quite close, and we can get cleaned up there, get something to eat, and then have a SERIOUS talk with Mr. Hero up there." Shizuka said, frowning.

"He's not out of the woods yet." Shizuka said looking up the hill.

* * *

"AH-CHOO!"

I rubbed my nose and sniffed, hoping that my allergies weren't acting up again.

In Texas, with mesquite and cedar being the predominant allergens drifting in the wind constantly, sinus allergies were a common problem back home. It was the last thing I needed right now though.

I honestly didn't think I had to worry about getting allergies here in Japan. Ah well.

The sun was almost completely set now, and as I gazed at the setting sun, I listened to the far away sounds of traffic and people still trying to evacuate the city.

Sound travels surprisingly well over water, sometimes for many miles. And even though the main roads and bridges of the City were miles away, you could still hear the sounds of the vehicles and shouts of people fairly well.

It almost sounded like the night parade back in San Antonio during Fiesta. The San Antonio Fiesta Festival is a spring festival that lasts eleven days back home, and you could hear all the noise of the festivities for a very long distance from downtown.

Of course, this wasn't home, and celebrating was the last thing on the minds of all those people running for their lives over there.

I could also clearly hear the teens and Shizuka talking below even though I couldn't understand a word they said, and I hoped that in a few more minutes when I returned to the group, we could quickly bury the hatchet and make plans to find shelter for the night.

I really should have had everyone push on and find shelter first and then we could kiss and make up later. But I was pretty beaten up and worn out and I figured a few minutes alone would help all of us to cool off and make it easier for us to work things out later.

I let out a long sigh as I gazed upon the area around me. I had been careful to stay in the shadows and not silhouette myself in any way in case any of our friends from earlier were snooping around.

So far, there hadn't been any sign that they had been eager to try to ambush us yet. And even then, I really wasn't all that worried that I couldn't handle them if they tried.

But as I turned around and looked behind me, what I saw off in the distance made my blood turn cold.

* * *

Everyone had been intently listening to Shizuka discussing the location of her friend's house that she would often maintain while her friend was away at work, when a sudden noise behind them got their attention and they all turned around suddenly as the American quickly came down the hill and headed straight for them.

"Jimu-san?" Shizuka began. "We were wishing to speak with you for a moment. We wished to apologize for the way we all behaved earlier, and we also wanted to discuss some important matters with you.''

The American held up his hand to silence her as he walked over to the group.

"I don't wish to be rude Shizuka-san, but we really need to discuss that later." He said, quietly. "Right now, I really need Takashi and Saeko to come with me. RIGHT NOW."

"Jimu-san, what's wrong? Shizuka asked alarmed.

"We may have a problem." The American said as he reached for his pack. "And I need you to watch the kids until we get back, and we might need to get moving pretty quick. Ok?"

"All right." Shizuka replied, extremely worried at what the man was NOT telling her.

"Who are you calling, KIDS?" Saya snapped, as always, extremely sensitive about being referred to as a child.

"The man old enough and big enough to spank you in front of your friends if you don't behave yourself and listen to Shizuka while I'm gone." The man retorted, as he unzipped a pocket on his pack.

"Remember that, young lady." The American said looking up at her.

Saya stared at the man wide-eyed, but remained silent. Rude or not, the man was much larger than her, and obviously in no mood for back-talk so Saya wisely deduced that there was no point in arguing any further unless she really wanted to put his threat to the test.

"Doshita, no?" Takashi asked as he watched the man searching through his pack.

"You'll see." He said, as he rummaged around in his pack and finally pulled out a small black case with several pairs of shooting glasses with clear and dark lenses in it. He then took out one of the pairs of glasses with clear lenses, and placed them over his eyes. They appeared to be the same as the ones everyone had seen him wearing before, but apparently he had lost them during his fall in the river.

"Are those OAKLEY'S?" Kouta asked, looking at the glasses with envy.

"Yup." The man responded with a grin. "Best glasses ever made. I've got three clear and two tinted pairs."

"FIVE PAIRS?!" Kouta exclaimed. "REALLY?!"

"Why's that such a big deal?" Saya asked aloud.

"Because they cost 16000 yen apiece." Kouta replied staring at the man's shooting glasses.

"Actually, they were a little more than that." He said smiling at them. "They're prescription."

"You mean YOU wear glasses too?" Kouta asked incredulously.

"Yup." The American replied. "I can see OK without them. But my eyes work much better with them, and they also protect my eyes when I shoot."

"How could you find us in the dark then without them earlier then?" Saya asked sarcastically.

"Well I ain't THAT blind pumpkin." He replied and then grinned mischievously. "And even if I was, all I had to do was listen for the sound of you screaming at Kouta to find you."

Saya gave him a dirty look but said nothing, as everyone snickered at the American's joke.

* * *

The American then reached further into another compartment and pulled out a small padded case in which he pulled out some sort of optical device that looked a lot like a small monocular.

"What's that?" Saya asked, extremely curious as she peered at the device in the man's hands and adjusted her glasses.

"PVS-14 Night Vision System." I replied, connecting it to the top RAIL of my Mk18 behind the Eotech sight and switched it on. I then pressed the "NV" switch on the Eotech and then peered through the scope to make sure the holo image was visible and everything was working the way it was supposed to.

I then switched out all my empty magazines with what few fresh ones I had in an outside compartment on my pack.

"It's in case I have to shoot in the dark." I explained as I switched out the mags and then looked over at Kouta still holding my M24.

"Kouta, do you know how to shoot that thing, son?" I asked.

"Yes sir." Kouta replied, EXTREMELY curious as to why the man was acting as if he were preparing for battle.

"Good, it's zeroed for 100 yards. Stay here and stand guard and watch the others; we'll be back in a moment." I said, as I rose to my feet.

"You two, come with me." I said, pointing at Takashi and Saeko.

Takashi took a step forward and then looked at Saeko who hadn't moved and remained in the nurses arm's.

"Busujima-sempai?" Takashi said looking at Saeko.

"Gomen nasai." Saeko said, hanging her head. "Perhaps it would be better for Miyamoto-san to join you instead Jimu-san."

The American looked at the teen for a long moment before walking over to where she stood.

" Saeko-chan." The man said holding out his hand to her. "I know you're upset with me sweetie, but I really need you to come with me. PLEASE."

Saeko looked at the American with his outstretched hand and lowered her eyes.

"Come on hon." The man said as he continued to hold out his hand. "I can't do this without your help."

Saeko looked into Shizuka's eyes as the nurse looked at her smiling and nodded her head. The teen then walked towards the American and gingerly took his hand.

"Thank you Saeko." The man said as he started to lead Saeko and Takashi away.

* * *

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Rei said loudly, alarmed at the American's strange behavior.

The man turned around and waved his hand at her to silence her.

"Keep it down." The man said the tone of his voice calm, but still indicating a sense of urgency. "NOT another word from this point on, understand? All of you stay here and keep quiet, watch out for each other and be ready to move. We'll be right back."

"I want to see what's going on too." Rei said hotly, immediately incensed about being left out once again while Saeko was allowed to accompany Takashi and the American.

"Yeah, there's no reason we can't come too is there?" Saya asked, also being a little miffed at being left out. "Hirano can stay and guard Mirakawa-sensei."

"Guys, enough. This is NOT the time for argument. I'm not trying to hide anything from you. I just REALLY NEED you to stay here for now, okay?" The man said, his voice sounding urgent.

"Rei, Takagi-san!" Takashi said. "Knock it off. We can talk about it later."

"You hush,Kumoro-kun, he's always taking you and Busujima-sempai with him, and it's not right!"

"Always taking them with me?" I thought, confused by Saya's comment. I had barely seen Takashi since we had gotten separated back in town much less taking him and Saeko out on frequent outings without the other teens.

Matter of fact, I had made Saeko stay with the others when I left to recon the bridge ALONE, so I hadn't been taking her anywhere with me either.

Saya made it sound like I was taking Takashi and Saeko to an amusement park while she and Rei had to stay home and play with their dolls or something.

What had gotten into these two all of a sudden?

* * *

"Knock it off you two, this is important. Come on guys." I said to Saeko and Takashi as I turned around once again to leave.

"But it's not fair!" Saya said angrily. "You're always treating Busujima –san and Komuro-kun nicer than us."

"Yeah!" Rei pouted." She's right it's not fair. Why can't we come too?"

"Enough!" I said exasperated. "YOU two are BOTH staying here, and that's FINAL!"

The two girls opened their mouths to reply but hushed when Shizuka cleared her throat as a warning. They both then sat down on the railing next to her and sulked.

I was about to turn around and leave with the two other teens in tow while still trying to figure out what had gotten into the two girls so suddenly, when it finally dawned on me why they were acting so childish about being left behind.

As comical as it sounded, Saya and Rei were jealous of my constant attention towards Saeko and Takashi, instead of including them in everything as well.

When a man has multiple children in his household, there is always one or two of his children that are his "favorite" and Saeko was mine, I admit. But kids are smarter than we give them credit for and they don't miss it when "daddy" lavishes more attention on another child than he does on the rest.

"Rei and Saya's anger, as silly as it sounds, was a simple case of "sibling jealousy and rivalry" because I was indeed guilty of lavishing more attention on the two older teens, especially Saeko, and I had been neglecting to include Rei and Saya in anything.

And the truth was, all I had done since we had left the school yesterday was get after Rei for running out of the school bus and snapping at Saya back at the school and throughout the day every time she yelled at Kouta.

As ridiculous as it sounded, my two other "daughters" were jealous of my constantly focusing my attention on the two older teens and neglecting them.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself at first.

Boy, had I stepped in it.

Instead of just being a mercenary who had accidentally stumbled on a group of strangers trying to survive, I was now indeed, the "father" figure of a bunch of teens.

I now had my own ready-made family.

You know that old saying. "Be careful what you wish for"?

As much as I always wanted a family of my own and had begun to think of Saeko as my daughter, I had not realized that the others would look at me as a "father" figure too, and would also become a little attached to me as well. Although probably not as attached as Saeko had come to be towards me.

And now, the other two younger teens wanted to be included in our "activities" that I had been neglectful of including them in, and now they were both pissed off and pouting about it.

Talk about irony. Just a while ago, I was screaming into the sky, with a gun to my head asking why I couldn't have a family of my own.

Now I had two "sons" and three "daughters" on my hands. And their nurse too, to boot.

And they all wanted "dad" to pay attention to them too.

"Oh geez." I groaned. "And to think I asked for this."

* * *

I turned around and looked at Rei and Saya, still sitting on the railing next to Shizuka, and saw them both looking away from me with angry looks on their faces. Saya was so mad she was actually wiping her eyes and wouldn't look at me.

If things weren't so serious now, I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. But that would have only made things worse and so I kept my humorous thoughts to myself.

"Saya-chan, Rei, come here please." I said to them, motioning them over.

They both looked at me but didn't move at first. They were still pretty pissed off, and it wasn't till Shizuka urged them to go up to me that they finally walked up and stood in front of me.

"Look you two." I began. "I realize that I've upset all of you, and I want to tell you both that I'm sorry about everything that's happened today."

" And I also want to apologize that I haven't come to you for help as much as I have with Takashi and Saeko. They're older than the rest of you, and I admit, I HAVE turned to them first, a lot. I'm sorry about that."

"Well, why can't we come with you now?" Rei asked, looking at me no longer with anger in her eyes. But there was definitely something in the way of sadness in her face.

"We can help too." Saya added wiping her eyes. With Saya it was hard to tell whether she was still angry with me or not. It was rare to see her without that scowl that always seemed to be there on her face.

"You ARE helping." I replied. "And I really need you to help Kouta protect Shizuka until we get back."

"You're just saying that!" Saya said angrily. "We're NOT dumb! You don't have to talk to us like we're a bunch of little kids!"

I could feel the hair on my head getting greyer every second, as much as these teens were starting to stress me out right now.

Well, I always did want to be a dad, now it was time to be patient like one.

Or just start yelling like one.

Nah, I'm not that kind of "dad."

"Rei." I said looking at her. "I saw you fight a while ago, and that's why I need you here. Kouta has a rifle, but I need someone that can back him up, and that means YOU."

"Saya-chan, I know this sucks for you being left behind, but I need you here as well."

"WHY?!" Saya asked loudly. There was no anger in her voice though. The tone of her voice was more of a disappointed whine than anything. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"Because, if something happens, I need someone to come up with a quick solution to the problem. And that means YOU."

Saya looked at me with a deep scowl on her face and there was no doubt in my mind that she didn't buy it for one second.

Smart girl.

Dammit.

* * *

"Ok, you got me. Here's the real reason, pumpkin." I said looking her in the eye.

"Him." I said motioning my head towards Kouta.

"WHAT?!" Saya said so loudly, that I had to shush her a bit. She then began a tirade of griping about why she had to suffer because of the "fat otaku", yada, yada, yada.

"Saya-chan" I said, putting my arm around her. "Look, I know you may not have the same feelings for Kouta that he has for you, but when you're around, he is a much better fighter, because all he wants to do is take care of you. That boy will DIE for you, and that's the kind of person I need guarding you and Shizuka right now. So PLEASE, help me out right now and stay here."

"I PROMISE, that I will make it up to you." I said, actually begging now.

Saya looked away for a moment and then rolled her eyes.

"Fine." She said, still pissed.

"Thank you, pumpkin." I said, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead.

"Whatever." Saya grumbled as she walked back to Shizuka and sat on the railing again looking at Kouta with a frown.

Shizuka was trying hard not to smile as I flashed a grin at her.

"Rei." I said turning towards the teen. "You're in charge now. Keep everyone safe till we get back, OK?"

"Hai." She replied, still not happy about being left behind, but less pissed off about it than earlier.

No, they weren't happy at all. But now they knew it wasn't personal at least.

"Be back in a bit Sensei." I said to Shizuka, as I turned around and motioned for the two other teens to follow me FINALLY.

Shizuka watched as the American walked away with Takashi and Saeko following him.

"I still think what he did was reckless." Shizuka thought to herself as the trio neared the top of the hill. "But he REALLY does mean well, and he also really DOES care about the children."

"Hmmm," Shizuka thought. "He is definitely a little OLDER. But he's not that bad looking either, and he's pretty good with children. I think I should introduce him to Rika-chan whenever we finally meet up again. I think she'd like to meet him."

* * *

"AAAH-CHOOO!"

"You getting sick?' Tajima asked his partner, Sgt. Rika Minami, as they walked down the long hallway back to the dorms.

They had both just FINALLY been relieved after a grueling 16 hour period of sniper detail, clearing the runways of any Infected that had prevented the airline traffic coming in and out of the still active airport.

Night had fallen, and the relief night shift sniper team from "C" squadron, had finally come in to relieve them.

The attack from the Infected had been swift and completely unexpected, and had taken a horrible toll on all airport personnel, especially the Police and Emergency Services people. After a fierce firefight at the hangers over on "B" Wing of the airport, Infected then seemed to be attacking from ALL OVER the place, and had quickly overwhelmed the small security force and forced them to pull back to the main terminal.

But not without experiencing the loss of some of their comrades in the withdrawal.

After the remaining Security Force had regrouped, the SAT had managed to re-gain and maintain control of some of the runways.

But it also seemed that the numbers of Infected kept increasing no matter WHAT the Airport Police Force did. And as a result, what officers remained were exhausting themselves trying to maintain a safe perimeter around the part of the airport not besieged by the Infected.

But with no relief coming from the Mainland, there was little the small handful of officers could do but try to hold out as best they could. The long shifts at station were starting to take their toll, however.

"I hope not." Rika replied to her spotter. "That's the last thing I need, right now."

"Maybe someone's talking about you." Tajima said jokingly. "Have you heard from your friend yet?"

"No." Rika said, rubbing her nose and sniffing. "Not yet."

"I don't have too many friends. So maybe she IS talking about me." Rika said laughing.

"AAH-CHOO!" Rika sneezed again and then frowned.

"You sure you're not getting sick?" Tajima asked concerned now. "Maybe you should head to the Infirmary and let the Doc check you out."

"No, I'm fine." Rika said shaking her head. "The time to worry is if I sneeze three times in a row."

"Why's that?" Tajima asked, puzzled.

Rika laughed. "That's because every time that ever happens, it means Shizuka's trying to pair me up with_.

"AAAH-CHOOO! AAAAH-CHOOO! AAAAH-CHOOO!" Rika stopped speaking as she suddenly became overcome by a fit of sneezes, one after another, before she could finish her reply to Tajima.

"Awwwww, DAMMIT, SHIZUKA! Rika said out loud shaking her head as Tajima stared at her, startled by her loud yell.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Rika shouted, staring up at the ceiling.

* * *

"Let's go, you two." The American said, as he turned around again to face Saeko and Takashi and then led them up the hill, as they followed closely behind.

As they neared the top of the hill he turned towards them and motioned them to get down and wait. As the two teens crouched down, he then walked the rest of the way up the hill by himself with his carbine to his shoulder and scanned the area before he knelt on the ground, being careful to stay in the shadows.

He then removed his pack from his shoulders and placed it in front of him on the ground before he motioned for the two teens to join him. As he remained kneeling on the ground waiting for them, Takashi and Saeko climbed up the rest of the way, and then suddenly froze in horror at what they saw.

"Come here next to me, and don't speak." The man said quietly, as the two teens moved up alongside the man and knelt next to him on either side.

The American quickly glanced at each teen and stared straight ahead as he spoke.

"I was standing guard up here while ya'll were talking, when they just suddenly appeared out of the shadows." He explained, as the two teens stared in shock at the scene before them.

"They're all headed towards the sound of all the noise coming from the evacuation upriver." The man said as he pulled the night optic off his carbine and handed it to them.

"Take a look." He said grimly.

The two teens took turns staring through the scope that amplified the ambient light from their surroundings turning everything a ghostly pale-green as they both stared in horror as HUNDREDS, perhaps THOUSANDS of Infected walked from between the city streets headed in the direction of Tokonosu Bridge.

They were walking slowly approximately 100 meters away from the trio observing them, no doubt all of THEM attracted by the sound of thousands of panicked people fleeing for their lives.

"Pretty soon this entire area is going to be crawling with THEM, and the last place we want to be is out here in the open, in the dark, with these things crawling around." The American said watching the slowly moving mass of Infected.

"How many do you think there are?" Saeko asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Oh, I'd say at least a couple thousand in front of us that I can see." The American replied. "Too many for us to fight alone, so we really need to leave here and somehow get around them and find shelter until they pass."

"But what about all those people trying to escape?" Saeko asked, looking at him. "We must warn them somehow."

"They ALREADY know hon." The American said gently without taking his gaze off the horde moving slowly in front of them. "THIS is what they've been running from all day. Ya'll two are just seeing just how big the problem really is for the first time."

Takashi was peering through the night scope as Saeko and I were speaking. And I guess he wanted to get a better look when he suddenly tried to stand up and I quickly grabbed his arm and forced him to stay down.

"NANDA?" Takashi asked, curious as to why I was forcing him to keep low.

"Yes, Jimu-san. Why ARE we hiding? They can't see us." Saeko asked, also curious as to why we were concealing ourselves in the shadows.

"They ain't the only threat out here guys, REMEMBER THAT." I replied. "There are people capable of doing far worse things crawling around out here with us, so you must ALWAYS be on your guard no matter what. That means sneaking around and avoiding others as if you were in combat."

"Because right now, you ARE in combat." I said sternly. "People are capable of great acts of kindness and heroism in times like this and then there are those capable of great evil as ya'll have already seen."

"So you must ALWAYS be careful who you trust, at all times." I said taking the night scope back from Takashi and taking a quick peek.

Like the teens, I was watching the massive crowd of Infected moving slowly towards the sounds of all those frightened people upriver running in panic from the sea of death that was closely following them.

But I was also watching out for any other potential threats that presented themselves. Namely, people who would be more than happy to get the drop on us and take anything, or ANYONE of value.

I knew the teens were probably overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the horror before them and I paused to look at both of their faces.

Takashi was a pretty quiet boy with a serious look on his face most of the time, and Saeko was also just about as serious too, although she cracked a smile more often than Takashi did.

Right, now though, all I could see in their faces was fear, and I didn't blame them one bit.

However, I hadn't brought them up here to be spectators. I had brought them up here for a reason, and it was time to prepare them for the difficult task ahead.

* * *

"Guys, this is our reality, this is our current situation, this is what we're up against and we are on our own." I began, as the teens looked at me.

"Up to this point, we've had it pretty easy, now it's going to get ugly beyond your wildest imaginations, and we cannot afford to be fighting amongst ourselves over petty crap, because I promise you, if we don't get our act together, someone WILL die." I said looking at them.

"I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it's the truth and there's no way to sugar coat it."

"In these past two days you have seen how dangerous things can get and you've seen just how quickly things can get out of control."

I paused a moment for emphasis before I continued my speech.

"And you also know just how quickly someone can die."

The teens looked down at the ground after hearing my words, and I placed my hands on each teen's shoulder and spoke to them the same way I had back in the faculty room when I first met them. I was talking to them as if I was their father again, and for what I was about to tell them, there really could be no other way to say it. It was time for "Father Goose" to take his two "goslings" under his wing and help them learn how to fly on their own.

I don't know why, but for some reason at the time, the two teenagers seemed so much smaller than they did before. I felt like my hands were on the shoulders of two children and not two young adults.

Maybe it was just me, but it probably seemed that way because I WAS placing a HUGE load on the shoulders of these two young people that really shouldn't have been thrust upon them in the first place, and I really felt bad for doing it.

But there really was NO choice.

They would have to learn to "sink or swim", "fly or die".

Hell of a thing for a "father" to have to teach his "children."

* * *

"Guys, I want the both of you to pay VERY CLOSE attention to everything I'm going to tell you." I said, as the two teens looked up at me. "Because from this point on, we can't afford to make any mistakes, or let personal differences get in the way again."

"First thing, I realize that all of you are upset with me. And I want you to know that I also understand why you feel that way. And I want you to know I'm sorry to have made you go through all that."

"Especially you, hon." I said hugging Saeko.

"I am also VERY proud of the both of you for the courage you showed in taking care of everyone AND also for taking care of me when we were separated, and also when you came to help the others when they were attacked."

"And I'm especially proud of the two of you, when you both tried to come rescue me."

"I can't begin to thank you enough for wanting to help me. And I'm really sorry that I've caused you so much pain because of it."

"And I hope that someday you will both understand why I did what I felt I had to, because I wanted then, and I still want now, for all of you to survive this nightmare."

"And as horrible as it sounds, I HAVE to tell you this right now."

"You must NEVER take risks for ME again, EVER."

The two teens began to protest at my words, but I was NOT going to be interrupted, no matter how they felt.

"Jimu-san!" Saeko began.

"ENOUGH." I said sternly, trying to stop them both from trying to protest. We were running out of time, and it was no time for sentiment or argument.

"I have been risking my life for others for YEARS. THAT was my job. THAT is STILL my job, and NONE of you have a say in that."

"I WILL do what I feel I HAVE TO for ALL of YOU, when the time comes." I said, not looking at them.

"YOU however, DO NOT have that option, PERIOD."

"WHY NOT?" Saeko asked angrily, refusing to back down without an argument.

Like I said, someone trying to prevent their rescuer from getting hurt or killed is an unheard of thing. And it makes people like me so overwhelmed with gratitude to hear people talk like that.

And for a child to not want you to get hurt, well, that really does tug at the heart strings.

Although right now, I really wanted Saeko to stop fighting me and just do what I told her.

It was ironic how much I was beginning to sound more and more like a frustrated parent every day.

Ah well, I am "Father Goose" now.

* * *

I gazed upon Saeko's face and then pointed back towards the bottom of the hill.

"Because from this point on sweetie, BOTH of you are now going to start being responsible for the lives of those people sitting under the bridge back there." I said, in answer to her question.

"And they CANNOT afford to lose either one of you."

"WHAT?!" The two teens exclaimed in horror, as I shushed them for being too loud.

"WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT?! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Saeko whispered in panic as she grabbed my arm. "WHY ARE YOU LEAVING?!"

"Calm down hon. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here with you every step of the way." I replied.

"Then why are you putting US in charge?" Takashi asked, more than a little alarmed at my words.

My, his English sure has improved lately.

"The reason for that is this, guys." I began to explain, "It's going to take ALL of us working together to have even half a chance of surviving this. And up to this point, I've been calling a lot of the shots. And we've been doing okay so far despite all the drama today."

"But the real problem is, that I haven't prepared any of you very well for the possibility that something just MIGHT happen to me, or Shizuka. And if that happens and you guys are alone, THEN WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"Today, something almost DID happen, and it's made me realize my mistake of not preparing you to be able to take care of yourselves."

"Believe me; it's going to take a lot more than running around the city, bashing monsters on the head with bats and wooden swords to get through this. It's going to require you to use YOUR HEADS more than just weapons."

So just to play it safe, I'm going to train you both to take care of yourselves and take charge of the group in case something should ever happen again."

"And truth is, right now, everyone knows and trusts both of you more so than they do me. So in order to help ya'll better to be able to take care of yourselves and the others in case something does happen to me again, I think as long as it's safe to do so, from now on BOTH of you will be needing to practice on making decisions as if you were on your own."

"You can't be serious!" Saeko said looking at me in horror. "How can we possibly get everyone safely through THAT?!"

"This is crazy!" Takashi said shaking his head.

Yeah, I knew my idea would sound crazy to them, but it really was necessary to be honest. The chances were good that we might not ALL make it to safety after all. And in order to increase their chances, the kids were going to have to grow up pretty quick. Their survival depended on it.

"Look guys, I'm NOT just handing you the responsibility of EVERYONE'S lives right now." I said trying to help calm their fears. "This is TRAINING in case the WORST happens and then you're FORCED to be on your own. I'll still be here to help you as an "adviser" in case you get stuck."

"What I want you to do from now on is work on being able to think for yourselves about the best way to keep everyone safe, and by doing that, you're helping ME to help all of YOU. Get it?"

The scared looks on their faces told me they GOT it all right.

The problem was they just didn't LIKE it, or WANT it either. Not one bit.

* * *

"Look guys, it all comes down to this." I said trying to explain. " Rei is a great fighter and Saya is a smart little cookie, but they both seriously need to GROW UP."

"They both have a tendency to fly off the handle WAY too easy over the littlest things, and they can't be relied upon YET to take the lead when things go bad. I believe with a little training they can get better, but we don't have that kind of time right now.

Kouta is a great kid but truth is, he'll cave to whatever Saya says, and Shizuka is,….well. "

"A very sweet person." I said unable to come up with another way to put it.

"Why do this NOW?" Takashi said his eyes growing wider, obviously feeling overwhelmed by what he was seeing. "Why not later when it's safer?"

"Komuro-kun is right, Jimu-san." Saeko said, also feeling overwhelmed with the enormous task ahead of them. "What can we possibly do against THAT?"

I sighed at their response, knowing full well they were just afraid. But I also knew they could handle this task. They had after all, proved they could be assertive when the time came. I just needed to help them realize just how capable they really were.

"Ya'll tell ME, sweetie." I said looking at her soberly in the face. "If I had died this afternoon, you would both be having to face this situation NOW, ….. and ALONE."

Fortunately, I'm NOT dead. But that can change very easily without warning."

"So from this point on you two will need to practice on being responsible for deciding what we should do as a group, and you will need to come up with a plan quick, because it's almost dark and we definitely don't want to be in the middle of all THAT if the power suddenly fails and we can't see a thing."

Takashi said something to Saeko in Japanese and I cut him off, QUICK.

"No more games, son." I said looking at him as he stared at me puzzled.

"Nani?" He asked.

"Cut the crap, boy." I said, firmly. "I KNOW you speak better English than I do, because the few times you've said something in English, it's been absolutely PERFECT, just like the way you've been speaking perfect English ever since I said that you and Saeko were now responsible for everyone's lives."

"Not to mention your friends forgot they were supposed to be "translating" my words to you whenever I spoke and I haven't seen any of them do that yet, since I came back."

Takashi looked at me sheepishly and realized he'd been busted. Nothing like a good scare to make a person forget about trying to be sneaky.

"I don't know who you think your fooling son, but it ain't me." I said, smirking.

"How long have you known that I was pretending?" Takashi sighed, dropping the act finally.

"Pretty much from the time I first met ya'll." I replied grinning.

"Look son, I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but even an old graduate from "La Techla'" like me knows about the high standards of the Japanese Educational System."

"And that school of yours looked like one of the more prestigious ones from what I could see, unless the inner city schools in Japan are set to higher standards than the ones back home that I went to. "

"Besides, do you honestly expect me to believe everyone including Shizuka speaks English perfectly and you DON"T?"

"C'mon son, I ain't THAT dumb."

* * *

Takashi hung his head, embarrassed. It had been his plan to play dumb just in case the American couldn't be trusted. But the man had seen through the ruse very easily however, and had let Takashi go on with the deception.

"Probably because he thought it was funny too." Takashi grumbled.

"Like I said, no more games, guys." The man repeated.

"All right, no more games." Takashi agreed.

"All right then. Now tell me something you two." The American said, taking his hands off their shoulders and checking his rifle.

"What do we do now?" He asked, waiting for their answer.

"I don't know." Takashi replied.

"Neither do I." Saeko replied as well.

"Oh come on guys, are you serious?" The man said, rolling his eyes. "You expect me to believe that a couple of smart kids like ya'll two don't have a clue on what to do in this situation?"

I wasn't trying to be mean; I knew they were just afraid. But sometimes you have to use a little psychology to snap a person out of their fear and get the wheels in their head turning again.

"C'mon guys, don't be afraid. Like I said, I'm right here to help you." I said, trying to help ease their anxiety. They really needed to learn how to take care of themselves without any outside help, yet at the same time, I didn't want them to feel TOO overwhelmed, TOO quickly either.

"All right, both of you take a deep breath, let it out, and then think about what you want to do." I said, reverting back to my old EMS Instructor mode.

"Of course, don't take TOO long trying to figure it out." I thought.

The two teens took a deep breath, just like I told them. And then let it out. After a brief moment, Takashi spoke up.

"Shizuka-sensei said that a friend of hers has a place nearby." He said, still looking over at the huge mass of Infected heading towards the bright lights of the bridge.

"How far away?" I asked.

"She didn't say" Saeko replied. "We were going to come get you and tell you about it, but you brought us up here before we could mention it."

"If its nearby then we need to head over there right NOW, and get off these streets before all THAT makes any type of movement over land impossible." I said, trying to give the kids a hint of a plan of action.

"I agree." Takashi replied. "I can take Marikawa-sensei on my motorcycle and check the house and see if it's clear. Then we can come back and all go together. What do you think Jimu-san?"

"Talk to your second-in-command son, I'm just the mercenary, remember?" I said, smiling slightly.

"I thought you said you'd "advise us." Takashi said, his voice sounding slightly frustrated.

"I will, but you haven't even tried all your options yet. Ask Saeko what she thinks first." I replied.

Takashi sighed in frustration, and then looked at Saeko. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think that's a good idea." Saeko agreed.

"WRONG." I said, giving them both a light smack on the back of their heads as punishment.

Thank you, Mark Harmon.

* * *

Both teens rubbed the back of their heads and stared at me with mouths agape, obviously shocked at my response to their plan. I didn't smack them hard enough for it to hurt them. But it was enough to get their attention.

And now that I had their attention, it was time to show them the errors of their ways.

"The first problem with your plan is that the roar of the motorcycle engine will echo underneath the bridge and draw all of THEM over here and every one of us will be dead before you even get halfway to this house you're headed for." I explained looking at them as they rubbed their heads in annoyance.

"So try again." I said, chuckling inwardly at them.

"Takashi looked at me warily, and then opened his mouth and spoke again, but with a little hesitation in his voice, I noticed.

"I can move the bike away from the bridge and then start it where the sound won't echo and make as much noise." He offered watching my hands, ready to duck.

"Good." I replied, smiling at him. "What about the rest of us?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, puzzled.

"If you're going to step up as Team Leader son, then the lives and safety of the people under you must always come first. Which means you must have some sort of orders for your people so that they know what to do and not just goof around like a bunch of dummies."

Takashi looked at me warily, a little nervous about giving me the wrong answer.

"Um, you could all wait for us to get back, after we are sure it's safe?" He said timidly, as he tried to be slick by covering the back of his head with his hand.

"Wrong again." I said as I smacked his forehead this time, and he winced and rubbed his head looking at me really annoyed now as I ignored his glare.

"Saeko? Your turn." I said, trying hard to keep from laughing.

I honestly don't know how actor Mark Harmon can keep a straight face doing this to his fellow actors on NCIS. But I was having a ball.

Saeko looked at Takashi in mild alarm and then looked back at me.

"Well?" I said, not looking at her as I scanned the area again with my night scope searching for any threats near us.

"Ano, we could move out after Komuro-kun and Marikawa-sensei leave and travel in the same direction until they make sure it's safe and return to tell us and then give us directions?"

"Close, but NO." I said and raised my hand.

* * *

Saeko saw me raise my hand and ducked down; covering her head with both hands just like the way they used to teach us in elementary school during tornado drills back home in Texas.

Unfortunately for her, in trying to avoid a smack to the back of her head, Saeko had left herself exposed in another vital area and I was quick to take advantage of her mistake and gave her a healthy wallop to her unprotected bottom.

I heard Saeko gasp as she quickly sat up and placed her hands on her sore butt and looked at me with her mouth open in shocked surprised.

And in perfect position for me to lightly smack her in the back of the head too, for good measure.

"That's what you get for ducking young lady." I said, really struggling hard to keep from laughing now.

I wasn't really trying to hurt or humiliate either of them. Honestly.

Although I did owe Saeko for slapping and beating me silly the way she did.

Naughty girl.

Young people should always respect their elders. No matter how much we piss ya'll off.

* * *

"ONE of the problems with ya'lls plan is noise." I explained while also trying to keep from laughing at the same time as they both glared at me.

" There's no way to get around it by using the bike, but Shizuka needs a ride and we all need to somehow leave here quietly without attracting our friends over there."

"PLUS, another thing ya'll need to do is ALWAYS have a backup plan in case something bad happens."

"Where are your maps?" I asked them.

The two teens reached into their pockets and pulled out a pair of soggy wads of paper that had once been the photocopied maps we had taken at the school.

"They got wet because we were trying to save what we THOUGHT was you." Takashi explained, looking at me still annoyed at getting smacked.

The kids were annoyed at me obviously, but more importantly, they were also paying attention and not worrying as much about the danger around us.

In fact, neither one of them was as scared as they were just a few moments ago, so my unconventional way of teaching was indeed working. There was indeed a method to my madness.

Although I doubt Dr. Phil would approve.

* * *

"And like I said before, I'm very proud of you both for trying to save me." I replied to Takashi, looking at him.

"But right now you have no way to find out where the other people in your group are after you leave here, unless you meet up with them again."

"And right now there's no guarantee of meeting them successfully. Not with all of THEM, and who knows WHAT else out there, waiting for you."

I had asked Shizuka to make extra copies of the map just in case we needed extras before we left the school, and it was a good thing too, seeing the condition of the maps the teens held.

"All right, here are a couple extras. Go down and find out EXACTLY where this friend of Shizuka's lives and then figure out the fastest and safest way to get there and mark it." I said as I pulled out my map case and opened it, pulling out a couple of spare maps for the both of them.

"THEN, find an ALTERNATE place to rendezvous in case this place we're going to is way too dangerous to approach, or if something happens and we get separated again."

"ALWAYS have a Plan "B" if the first plan fails."

"Do ya'll understand?"

Takashi and Saeko both nodded their heads. Special Ops people always have more than one backup plan before an Operation is set in motion, and sometimes several backup plans if the first one fails. But I didn't want to overwhelm these kids.

They would learn that, and many more lessons as we all traveled together. But for now, I wanted to be sure they understood EXACTLY what it was they needed to do before we got moving.

"The next thing you want to do is make sure that everyone does the same thing and marks the location we're headed for, as well as mark the alternate location on their maps. And then you need to make sure that everyone knows exactly where we're headed."

"When that's done I want you to come back and show me the location of where we're going so I will know as well, and then I'll let you know for sure whether it's the RIGHT thing to do or not. I'll be keeping watch from up here till you return."

"Saeko-chan," I continued. "When Takashi gets back, both of you need to coordinate your plans together and make sure you're both on the same page."

"Then you need to get everyone moving and help Takashi and Shizuka get clear from the bridge BEFORE he starts the motorcycle, and then start heading towards the direction that's marked on the map where this friend of Shizuka's lives."

"Takashi." I said turning to face the teen. "When they get far enough ahead, I'll signal you, and then you can start the motorcycle and head up to this Rika person's house and see if it's clear. If it is, stay put and don't move. We'll join up with you both as soon as we can."

"What are you going to be doing?" Saeko asked.

"I'll be trailing behind in the shadows." I replied.

"JIMU-SAN, you're not possibly thinking of doing things alone again are you?" Saeko said with an angry look on her face.

"Before you get ready to slap me again hon." I said, getting ready to duck myself if I saw her make any sudden movements.

"The problem is that with all of you walking and riding on the road down there, anyone can sneak up on you from up here. This way, I can keep an eye on all of you and have the advantage of being on the high ground so I can watch both you and any enemies lurking nearby."

"Why not just have all of us join you up here?" Saeko asked.

I just knew Saeko hated the idea of my being alone up here by myself, again. But all things considered, what I was doing was the smartest thing to do.

"Stealth is really not this group's strongest suit Saeko-chan." I replied.

It was no joke either, Saya's sudden little hissy fits at Kouta would get us all killed someday.

Plus, it was also dark, and we needed to remain in the shadows, which meant avoiding street lights and any other form of illumination that would give us away. And with the kid's stumbling around in the darkness not being able to see, well, I might as well have everyone wearing cowbells and popping flares. That would be just about as stealthy.

Saeko sighed and nodded her head. She didn't like it, but there was little choice either.

* * *

"Takashi, take this." I said to him as I pulled my backup pistol still in its custom ankle holster strapped to my leg. Miraculously, it had also survived my ride along the river bottom, without falling out.

"What is it?" He asked looking at the titanium colored pistol I held in my hand, and looking a little reluctant to take it.

"HK P7 semi-automatic pistol, 9mm." I replied pulling the pistol from its holster and pulling out the magazine. I racked the slide to eject the round and grabbed it, and then handed the pistol to Takashi after I released the slide, letting it slip forward quietly.

"I don't like guns." Takashi started to protest as he held his hand up trying to prevent me from giving it to him. "I'd rather just use my bat."

"It doesn't matter what you like, Takashi." I said, as I looked him in the eye. "You're in charge of other people's lives now and your personal inhibitions mean absolutely jack right now."

"Look son, a gun, like a bat, is just another tool in your arsenal. When you don't have a gun, THEN you use a bat. If you're worried about noise, THEN you use a bat."

"But the safety of the people under you're care comes first, so if you have a gun and don't need it, fine. If you don't have a gun but need one, then you're S.O.L."

"But if you CHOOSE not to take a gun with you because you're not comfortable with it and then get yourself or someone else killed needlessly. Well, then what do call that?"

Takashi stared at the pistol for a long moment and then took it from my hand. I knew he was scared of the thing and the weighty responsibility thrust on him, so I then rested my hand on his shoulder for another pep talk.

"I know this is not something you're comfortable with." I began," But remember son, if you're going to take on the responsibility of protecting others, then your personal wants, desires and fears must not interfere with your ability to act when the need arises." I said to him as he gingerly held the pistol.

"I realize this must scare you a bit holding one of these, but let me assure you that this particular pistol, is one of the safest designs around, so don't be afraid of it." I said, trying to calm his fear.

"The safety is built into the grip, so you can squeeze that trigger all day long and it won't fire."

"Try it." I urged him as he gingerly squeezed the trigger and nothing happened. He then squeezed it a few more times getting comfortable with the fact it wasn't going to explode in his hand, like most first-time gun owners act when they get a gun in their hands for the first time.

"Whenever you DO want to shoot." I explained." Then you need to squeeze the grip first and then hold it while you squeeze the trigger. Try it again."

Takashi squeezed the grip and then squeezed the trigger as the pistol dry-fired.

"It's a little hard to squeeze it." He said looking at me.

"It's supposed to be, so you don't accidentally shoot yourself. " I explained. "Try it a couple more times and get used to it."

Takashi tried it three more times and then I replaced the magazine and racked a round into it.

"Allright, your weapon is hot. If you need to shoot, you know what to do. Just align the sights like the revolver you had earlier and squeeze the grip firmly and then squeeze the trigger."

"You have eight shots. DON"T waste them." I said as I put the pistol back in its holster and handed it to him.

The pistol was carried in an ankle holster that also had a clip on it so that it could be secured to a boot or belt as well as being strapped to an ankle. Takashi clipped it on his belt and made sure it was secure and easy to get to in an emergency, and then nodded that he was ready.

"Be careful, son." I told him." Don't take any unnecessary chances. If things look bad, don't screw around, head back to us, or the secondary rendezvous point, got it?"

"Got it." Takashi replied as he looked at Saeko."Are you ready Busujima-sempai?"

"I wish to speak to Jimu-san for a moment first." Saeko replied looking at him.

"Alone, please. Komuro-kun."

Takashi looked up at the American who nodded his head.

Takashi then glanced over at Saeko again and nodded once to her, and then silently headed back down the hill towards the others.

* * *

Saeko watched as Takashi walked down the hill, her mind racing with all the things she wished to say to the American and the sick feeling in her stomach wasn't helping ease her mind either.

There was so much she wanted to say to him, and she found herself deeply afraid of what the man would say or do once she spoke, especially after the horrible way she had treated him.

Saeko turned around and forced herself to look into the man's face as she finally mustered the courage to speak and gasped as the man spoke first, startling her.

"What's on your mind, sweetie?" The man said gently.

Saeko had been startled by the man abruptly speaking first, and was unable to speak as the man turned to face her. Even in the dark, Saeko could feel his eyes watching her, and once again lost her nerve, and found herself unable to speak.

"Saeko-chan? What's wrong, honey?" The man asked her worriedly, speaking in the same gentle voice he had spoken to her earlier that day as he left to scout out the bridge on his own searching for transportation.

He had spoken to her so calmly and held her so gently before, trying to comfort her as she had suddenly began to weep for no apparent reason.

He had not chastised her either, or made any jokes as he usually did. Instead he treated her with respect, and at the same time, attempted to comfort her as if she were HIS daughter that was afraid to be left alone.

"And I said all those horrible things to him." Saeko winced as she thought of how she had slapped, beaten, and yelled at him in mindless fury for being nonchalant about nearly dying. It had infuriated her because her heart had been so broken at his loss, and he had acted as if sacrificing his life to save theirs was no big thing at all.

Now, even after all she had done, he was still treating her so kindly, and was still so concerned about her. Even now, with danger all around and the need to seek shelter all the more urgent, he was still taking the time to listen to her, and concerned that something was troubling her.

Saeko just couldn't find the words.

"I, I_," She stammered, as tears began to flow.

"I HAVE TO GO!" Saeko said suddenly, losing her nerve and attempting to get up and run past him.

Saeko suddenly felt the man's arms reach out and embrace her, just as he had before when she had begun to cry as he was about to leave them to search the bridge all alone, earlier that day.

And now here he was again, comforting her when death was all around them. And Saeko could hold her feelings in no longer.

"GOMEN NASAI!" Saeko finally blurted out.

"I'm so sorry Jimu-san!" Saeko managed to say before she became overwhelmed with guilt and started crying, feeling that she would never stop.

For a long while, the two figures stayed like that despite the danger.

To anyone who would have seen the pair in daylight before the Outbreak began, the sight of a young Japanese girl, crying in the arms of an older, Foreign National would have been thought quite odd.

Now however, such a sight was not quite so odd with numerous acts of kindness, mercy, and tenderness being displayed all around the world as people helped others to deal with the horror and tragedy going on all around them.

Friends helping friends.

Family helping family.

Strangers helping strangers, becoming strangers no more.

Now, here next to a canal on the side of a hill in Japan, the two figures were merely one of many who tried to comfort one another.

Just another father trying to comfort his daughter.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Well,

I goofed again. I had intended on ending "Crossroads" with this chapter.

Instead I only managed to write half of what I wanted. So I guess the next chapter will have to be the one to wrap up "Crossroads". Sorry.

Originally, "Crossroads" was only supposed to be THREE chapters long. Now I've just finished Part Six, and am about to start Part Seven.

"Last Alarm" was a story that was only supposed to be about MAYBE forty chapters in length TOTAL.

Now I'm working on Chapter Eighteen, and it's ONLY the second day of the Outbreak and we haven't even gotten to Rika's condo yet.

AND, the events leading up to the climactic fight at the bridge in Chapter Three is supposed to be TWO WEEKS after the Outbreak. LOL.

Last Alarm has turned out to be a project of a magnitude that I didn't think possible. And I'm constantly amazed by how much bigger it's turned out to be.

This story was meant to be written for my younger brother only, as a gift so he would know me for something else besides my just being his brother and for the job I do.

Posting it here on fanfiction, was merely a whim.

My reasoning was that if someone here liked it, I'd continue what I was doing.

If NO ONE liked it, and thought it was crap. I'd just chuck the whole idea and give my brother a present of some sort.

Instead, people from lands I've never even HEARD of are reading my story and HOPEFULLY enjoying it. I have had some nice things said about my story and I'd love to hear more from all of you, especially from my new friends from overseas.

It really blows my mind honestly. Thank you all for your support.

And yes, my brother is enjoying the story too.

Although I have no idea now when I'll be able to finish the whole story now that a second season has started and a fresh new set of ideas is now coming in.

On that note, I was trying really hard to finish "Crossroads" after an incident last week.

Right now, I'm still an active Firefighter/Paramedic, and we've been pretty busy lately now that summer's almost here and people are starting to act crazier than usual.

Car accidents, EMS calls,and House and Brush fires usually increase around this time and unfortunately, fatalities increase as well.

The other day, I was on ventilating a roof with a Lieutenant on a restaurant fire, and the roof began to sag on us. We got off the roof quickly after venting the roof and one of the things that popped in my head when I got off shift was.

"Man, I need to hurry up and finish "Crossroads" before something happens."

LOL. No, I'm not kidding either. I guess this story has me obsessed with finishing it too.

I've been writing like crazy on this story, but it took me longer this time to finish up this chapter because of how busy we've been at work, and stuff that I need to do on my days off, so I'm sorry it took longer this time to post.

BTW, I've had a LOT of people PM me asking,

"Where's Rika? When are you going to bring back Rika ? Why aren't you bringing Rika back NOW?"

LOL, well I thought I'd bring her back in a cameo appearance.

Don't worry, Rika becomes a HUGE part of the story later.

Also, the little "tantrum" that Rei and Saya had at Jim for him leaving them behind was an inside joke, and not an attempt to make them sound like a couple of spoiled brats.

I have been focusing a LOT on the "father/ daughter" relationship between Saeko and Jim which is going to be a big focus on the story towards the end of "Last Alarm", that I realized, I wasn't giving enough written dialogue to the rest of the group, especially Rei and "Pumpkin".

The truth is, it's just HARD for me to write dialogue for so many people and I really did ''neglect" Saya and Rei, a bit.

So in that scene, I had them throwing a tantrum at Jim for not having more to do in the story.

I thought ya'll might get a kick out of that.

I'll be working on the last part of "Crossroads." And hopefully nothing will happen to me before then.

For now, I thought I'd end the story with Jim and Saeko having a father/daughter moment.

Thanks again folks! Jim

BTW,

Some readers have suggested some really nice music to go with this story.

If anybody wishes to suggest any music to go with these chapters, please give me a holler. Recording a soundtrack to go with this story for my brother would be a pretty cool project too.

Thanks again! Jim


	18. Chapter 17 - Crossroads -Part Seven

Last Alarm

Chapter Seventeen

"Crossroads" Part Seven

* * *

Crossroads plural of cross·roads (Noun)

intersection of two or more roads.

2.A point at which a crucial decision must be made that will have far-reaching consequences.

* * *

One of the biggest joys and one of the worst tragedies about being a Firefighter/Paramedic is dealing with children.

I've always enjoyed showing schoolchildren the fire truck whenever the local schools would send classes of young schoolchildren over to the station for a tour of the firehouse during Fire Prevention. As rambunctious as they could be sometimes, it was still a lot of fun.

I also used to get a big kick out of the guys whenever we had to go to an elementary school and teach kids about fire safety, and then we'd show them the truck and put on our bunker gear and demonstrate the tools we used and so forth.

What always made me laugh about the guys was that we firemen are very proud of our occupation, and I'm no different than the rest of the guys. We can get a little cocky sometimes, just like the guys in the Police Dept. who love it as much as we do, to work out hard in the gym and talk tough and act a little macho sometimes.

Okay, make that, we act macho a LOT of the time.

But despite how macho we are and how much we push ourselves to do our very best at our job. There is nothing that will scare a firefighter more than having to talk to a bunch of preschooler's during Fire Prevention.

Actually, that's only some of the guys, not all of us. But I do get a kick out of the guys who are married and have children of their own who freak out when it's their turn to speak to a class of five year olds.

I tease the guys all the time about being "Big, strong, macho firemen" who will rush into a burning building, but will back pedal like no tomorrow when facing an auditorium full of kids.

It's funny, but we all manage to get through it alive and have fun.

Unfortunately, when the alarm goes off, and the call comes in for a child, it's not fun at all. And nothing makes any of us in Emergency Services haul ass faster to a call than when a child is involved.

But sometimes it doesn't make a difference how fast we get there.

The only time I ever talk about those calls where children are involved is if the person is a fellow Firefighter, Paramedic, Policeman, or a trainee. Otherwise I just don't talk about. Sometimes the things that happen on those calls are related to sickness, and some to neglect.

And then are some things just so horrible, you just don't want to talk about them, especially to civilians.

So I won't.

* * *

Sometimes as adults, we get so caught up in the rat race and the frustrations of life that we tend to take things for granted. And sometimes we don't appreciate what we have until it's gone.

And then there's my situation, where I've never known what it's like to have a family of my own.

I try not to bore people with the story of my love life, or lack thereof. When I was a younger man, like all young men, I wanted to find the woman I could love and settle down. And while that never worked out to well for me, what hurt later was the fact that I never had any children either.

None of us truly enjoy being alone. But what hurt me was that all my life's experiences, my life's lessons, joys, heartbreak, triumphs, tragedies, and accomplishments would not be passed down to anyone. Everything I knew, everything I ever learned, everything I ever remembered would die with me.

I guess that's what my biggest regret later in life became, and it began to affect me in ways I did not even realize.

And one of the ways it had affected me was how I was reacting to these young refugees that I had stumbled upon. Instead of treating them as I would have if I had been working as a Firefighter helping to evacuate this small group of teens and their school nurse from a major disaster.

I had started treating them as if they were my own family.

* * *

In short, I screwed up and got too close to them emotionally, and now all of them were looking up to me as a "father" figure, and not just a kind-hearted stranger who was only trying to help them find their families.

And now I was beginning to realize just how badly I had f_cked up, because here I was kneeling on the ground in the dark, with death all around, holding a young teenage girl in my arms sobbing because she had been so upset at watching me nearly getting killed just a couple of hours ago, as I was trying to help her and her friends.

And because he had been so upset at believing that she had just watched me die earlier that she had attacked me in anger for being what she thought was an act of pure recklessness.

And as I held her small body in my arms, I realized just how badly I had screwed up by being too friendly with them all. And especially, with this young girl who I had allowed myself to think of as my daughter, even though she wasn't.

I had been so stupid as to allow myself to find comfort for my own pain by treating them, and especially Saeko, like family.

And what was making this extremely hard now, was that their concern for me would make it harder for me to keep them safe if I had to take certain risks and they interfered because they didn't want me to get hurt.

And there was also the fact that when we did get to safety, I would have to let them go, and walk away again, with nothing.

And as I held Saeko in my arms, I dreaded that more than anything.

* * *

My feelings had already clouded my judgment before, and right now, when everyone should be on the move towards shelter, I had allowed Saeko a moment to talk to me instead of telling her to wait till later when it was safer.

And now I was holding her in my arms as she cried her eyes out, while every tick of the clock was putting us in more and more danger with thousands of Infected walking nearby 100 meters away.

But I couldn't help myself from wanting to comfort her, and if I could, I didn't want to even try.

All I saw and felt right now was the little girl with the pigtails that I had held crying in my arms in my dream on the riverbank earlier.

And now, here she was, crying in my arms for real as I tried to comfort her, finally getting the chance to be the loving father I had always prayed I would one day be.

I'm a pretty big guy. Not a giant by most standards, but taller than most in my family, except for my younger brother who's taller than I am.

Saeko was taller than the rest of the teens in the group, but she felt so tiny in my arms, and it wasn't hard at all to imagine her as the little girl in my dream, as much as I was wishing that she was.

But sadly for me, she wasn't my daughter.

And she definitely wasn't a child.

She was a strong, mature young woman.

And if I wanted her to survive, I had to stop treating her as if she were my own child, and let her go.

* * *

But as she cried so bitterly in my arms, my own heart was moved by her sadness and pain, and I couldn't bring myself to even think about detaching myself from her, despite the growing danger nearby.

I wanted to stay here as long as it took, and comfort her, even though we really needed to leave this area immediately.

But despite my better instincts to get moving quickly, I waited tell her weeping subsided, a part of me grateful for the fact that I had a "daughter" depending on me to protect and comfort her, when for so many years there had been none at all.

Eventually, she stopped crying, and I held her a moment longer in silence before I finally spoke.

* * *

"Saeko-chan." I said gently. "Are you okay now, sweetie?"

She didn't speak, just merely nodded her head in a "yes."

"I'm sorry I slapped you." Saeko said, her voice heavy with emotion.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about Saeko." I said as she looked up at me in surprise. "You did nothing wrong, hon."

"How can you say that?" She said to me the surprise in her voice very evident. "I hit you and said those horrible things."

I chuckled to myself before I answered her.

"Sweetie, if my family knew what I did today, my own mother would be beating me to a pulp." I replied.

"All you did was remind me how dumb I can be once I start doing things on my own and don't listen to people smarter than me." I said tapping her on the forehead.

"You were right hon." I admitted. "Shoulda listened to you in the first place and not gone off by myself."

"So, you were right to smack me around." I said smiling.

Saeko looked at me without reaction at first, until I snickered, then she actually laughed herself as well.

* * *

Saeko released herself from my embrace and then moved over, kneeling to my right side, staring off into the distance towards the horde of Infected that were still shuffling, towards the fleeing masses, although I think she did it more for my benefit so that I could scan for danger while we talked.

"I'm sorry I said I hated you." She said being serious.

"That's alright." I replied. "You didn't mean it."

"You didn't mean it, right?" I asked after she had not answered right away.

"No." She replied. "I was just very upset. "

"But please tell me Jimu-san, why did you jump? You did not have to do that. You could have done something else till we could rescue you."

I sighed knowing she would not like my answer. But I wasn't going to lie to her either.

"My one thought as I was hanging there Saeko-chan." I replied. "Was for you to live."

"And I knew, of everyone in this little group of ours, you would not have stopped trying to rescue me." I said. "And you would have died trying to do exactly that."

"And none of you are going to die for me."

" I won't let that happen as long as I'm alive." I said. "It is the duty of the protector to risk and if necessary, lose his life for the people he is protecting. As a student of Kendo, you of all people should understand that."

"The proud tradition of the Samurai is held in extremely high regard in Japan, and your being a student of Kendo, I'm sure you were raised to understand the whole principles behind strength, duty, loyalty, honor, and sacrifice, correct?" I asked.

Saeko didn't reply and I realized that she was pondering seriously on my words. I did what must be done for the group's safety. Everything I did was for their benefit.

If I were a Samurai warrior, it would not have been her place to say anything, nor would anyone else have been able to respond the way they had earlier.

I had done something few people would, and for my efforts, I had been chastised severely for it. While I understood their reasons for the way they reacted, the friends and family of a Samurai warrior would not have questioned the motives or tactics he used to carry out his duty. And if he died, they would have honored his sacrifice.

They may have all thought the guy was an idiot, but they wouldn't have said it out loud. And they would have praised his noble sacrifice, no matter what.

And for Saeko, raised in that Tradition, it must be extremely rough for her right now, realizing just how much she had strayed off the path, and had reacted with so much emotion instead of the usual dignified stoicism we Westerners usually imagine when we think of the Samurai way of life.

When I met her at the school, she had acted so quiet, level-headed, and mature. She had fought like a veteran, her movements clean, precise, devastating, and yet beautiful to watch.

And in less than a day she had been reduced from that perfect image of a proud warrior from a Samurai clan, to an emotionally troubled teenager. All for worrying about the life of a burnt-out, lonely, old man who didn't belong in this country in the first place.

She was beating herself up inside over it and it was killing me too because I knew it was all my fault.

Time to reverse the damage I'd done, if it wasn't already too late.

* * *

"I've always had a high respect for the Samurai, and the principles they were supposed to live by. But there is one thing I never cared for." I began, hoping what I was saying sounded convincing enough.

"What's that?" Saeko asked.

"The whole "to serve" without question, thing." I replied. "There are VERY few people in this world that I would gladly follow anywhere, much less die for. And to die for someone that has no honor just because you are an honorable person and the circumstances dictate you must sacrifice yourself for that jackass?"

"Nah, not me." I said 'Although the entire principle of Bushido I do highly respect and those who live by it honorably."

"But when I studied Budo, I turned towards Togakure Ryu Ninpo as my preferred fighting art."

"You've studied the Art of the Shinobi?" Saeko asked, in disbelief.

"Well, I studied every book I could find from Dr. Maasaki Hatsumi, and Stephen K. Hayes, but actual Ninpo schools were unheard of back then in Texas. So basically, I had to teach myself what little I know from what I read and then practice alone."

"I am nowhere near your level of skill, though." I said laughing.

"But why study the Ninja?" Saeko asked, realizing I was serious and not just joking.

"The whole principle of being invisible and fighting in the shadows really appealed to me." I replied.

"It's also one of the reasons I became interested in Special Operations." I continued. " Think about it. Being an elite warrior amongst a small band of other warriors like yourself deep behind enemy lines, striking without warning, and disappearing into the shadows."

"C'mon, you can't tell me that doesn't sound pretty cool."

"Besides, I've always liked being a bit of a rogue." I said good-humoredly.

"I would never have guessed that."Saeko said quietly.

Sarcasm has a way of being so irritatingly dignified when it comes from a person of Samurai heritage.

I stared at her as she returned my stare with a serious face.

There was just enough light for her to see me stick my tongue out at her and she finally cracked up, although she covered her mouth with her hand so as not to laugh out loud and give our position away.

"Brat." I said chuckling, as I put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick hug.

* * *

Shizuka had been watching from the bottom of the hill at the two shadowy figures at the top of the hill kneeling side by side while Takashi was talking to the other teens and discussing their plans on traveling to Rika's condo. Since she would be riding with Komuro, and already knew the way, she had decided to walk to the bottom of the hill and check on the two after putting on the sneakers that the American had scavenged. They were quite comfortable, Shizuka had to admit, and she barely felt any discomfort from the blister anymore.

And as she silently watched the two figures embrace each other and then continue speaking in hushed voices, she smiled knowing that all was forgiven between the young teen and the big man.

"Thank goodness." Shizuka thought, watching them. "I was beginning to worry when Busujima-san didn't return with Komuro-kun."

"He really is a kind man." Shizuka thought as she saw the American wrap his arm around the young girl's shoulder and gave her another friendly squeeze. "I'm definitely going to introduce him to Rika when I see her again."

* * *

A bone-numbing chill went up Rika Minami's spine despite the searing heat of the bath water she had been soaking in, causing her to sneeze fitfully three times in succession once again.

"DAMN YOU, SHIZUKA!" The people walking outside the dorm walls heard her roar.

"What the hell is she getting me into NOW, of all times?!" Rika said as she shivered in the near boiling bath water.

* * *

Saeko watched as the American opened a pocket in his combat vest and pulled out a small tube of some sort, and taking off a cap on the end of it, started rubbing some sort of dark paste all over his face.

"What is that?" Saeko asked as the skin on the man's face darkened.

"Green Camo paint." The man replied, returning the tube to his pocket and then smearing the dark paint all over his face, neck, and ears, until all of his exposed skin was covered.

"Why are you wearing that?" Saeko asked worried. "Do you expect trouble from someone besides "Them"?"

"Hopefully not." I replied. "But if our friends from this afternoon return or anyone like them, then I'd rather they not see me before I see them."

"Do you really think they'll come back?" Saeko asked staring instinctively out into the darkness as I looked at her and smiled at my brave little warrior while she searched for danger, a strong sense of pride running through me as a father would I suppose at seeing his child putting into practice the lessons the child had been taught, and then shook off my feelings realizing once again I was getting too emotionally involved again.

Saeko was a brave girl, and despite her getting all worked up over this old fool nearly getting killed this afternoon, she was more level-headed and wise beyond her years than the others, and immediately understood that their really was a strong possibility of another attack from the same street gang or one similar to the ones we encountered earlier.

But still, I saw no reason to scare her with what was really only a hunch that I had.

* * *

In all the years I've served as a Paramedic and then later as a Firefighter, I have witnessed so many things that people are capable of doing that defy logic sometimes.

And to this day, I still can't understand what caused people to do the things they did when we arrived.

We made a joke of it and called it "job security."

But believe me, there isn't a day that goes by where a policeman, paramedic, or firefighter somewhere in the world doesn't go "WTF?" several times a day during his shift.

There had been no logic behind the attack on the teens earlier. Those people were only interested in violence and rape, and nothing else in the middle of an apocalypse where logic would dictate SURVIVAL. Not criminal behavior. But again, sometimes logic does NOT apply when it comes to certain people.

And now that five of their number were cooling off on the road upriver, I was certain the ones still alive would want some payback.

Logic dictates that after watching your friends get killed in front of you, and almost nearly getting killed yourself, that the last thing you'd ever want to do is to go ANYWHERE near the group of people that were so well protected, and risk getting shot at again.

But again, some human beings have a tendency to defy logic sometimes.

And with a group of teenage children and one school nurse favoring a sore foot, I wasn't taking any chances.

* * *

"Better safe than sorry, sweetie." I replied, smearing the camo paint on.

After I had camo'ed my face, ears and neck, I reached into my pack and pulled out the head mount for my night scope.

"What's that, you have now?" Saeko asked. She was acting more like a kid now, wanting to see all the cool stuff I had. I grinned as I unscrewed the small scope mount from the scope.

"It's a head mount for the night scope. " I explained. "Whenever, I walk patrol at night, I prefer to be able to see where I'm going, especially on a dark night like tonight. So instead of keeping it mounted on my carbine, I have it on my head, where I can flip it up or down so I can use it."

I clipped the scope to the head mount and then flipped it down making sure it was comfortable. I then reached in the pack again and pulled out a dark blue boonie hat that had been issued to me back when I was still a fireman. I was checking my carbine when I heard Takashi coming back up the hill towards us.

"I'm back." He said, puffing a bit. "I told everyone where we were going and what we were doing, and everyone understands the plan. I came back like you said, to show you the location of where we're going and the second place we're going to in case it's too dangerous at the first location."

"Good job son, hold on for a second." I said, as I reached into my pack and pulled out a heavy green plastic poncho.

"My goodness." Saeko thought as she watched the American unfold the poncho. "What doesn't he have in that bag of his?"

"What's that for?" Takashi asked, eyeing the poncho in the man's hands.

"Saeko." I said as I unclipped the night scope from the headset and passed it to her. "Keep watch while Takashi and I look at the map."

* * *

"Let's scoot down the hill a bit buddy." I said to Takashi as he followed behind. As soon as we were below the edge of the top of the hill I stopped and motioned Takashi to come near me before I threw the poncho over us, completely covering us.

I then took out a small red penlight from my pocket and clicked it on.

"What are you doing?" Takashi asked, extremely curious.

"The red light helps preserve my night vision, plus with the poncho covering us, we can read the map without giving our position away."

"Is there someone stalking us?" Takashi asked wide-eyed.

Boy, this kid sure was a little jumpy all of a sudden wasn't he?

Well, he wasn't the only one.

* * *

"Naw, but its good practice nonetheless." I replied, although I wasn't really sure about someone NOT stalking us. "Now, show me what ya got."

After a few quiet moments, Saeko heard Takashi and the American returning.

"See anything sweetie?" The man asked her as he took the night scope from her hand and clipped it to the strange device he wore on his head.

"Just an entire city full of Infected moving Towards Tokonosu Bashi, but nothing else moving out there that I could see." Saeko replied.

"Good. Takashi, take Saeko downhill with the others and give her the details of the plan." I said looking at them both. Let Saeko and everyone get about 100 meters ahead of you before you start the engine and take off, OK?"

Takashi nodded his head, as I continued speaking.

"Saeko-chan, take the group out and stay close to the side of the hill as you walk. If something happens, all of you hide in the grass until I tell you it's all clear, or I tell you to RUN, understand?"

'Hai." Saeko replied, although the tone of her voice didn't inspire any confidence in me that she was too keen on my being alone again.

Time for another pep talk I guess.

"Look you two." I said gently. "The lives of everyone here is depending on the two of you being able to maintain control of your doubts, your emotions, and your fears."

"So focus on your plan, and remember your back-up plan if something happens. And if something happens that you're not able to handle, BACK OFF, and we'll work something out."

"You're not alone out there, remember that." I said.

"But you are, and I don't like it." Saeko thought.

"Will we be able to see you or find you if we need you?" Saeko asked.

"I'll be right behind trailing you from up here." I replied. "So if something happens, I'll know right away.

"But as far as seeing me, hopefully not." I said grinning.

"The "Shadow Warrior" is a warrior that prefers to remain unseen. Our art is the Art of Invisibility, and those who live in the shadows must be able to move unseen, and strike without warning." I said, doing my HORRIBLE impression of Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"This is Nin-Po."

"This is The Way of the NIN-JA."

Saeko giggled despite herself.

"This man can be so goofy sometimes." She thought to herself.

* * *

"Now that's what I like to hear." The American said looking at her.

"What's that?" Saeko asked puzzled by his remark.

"Your being happy and laughing, that's what." I replied.

"It's good to hear you laugh." I said as I saw Saeko turn her head a little embarrassed at my words, I guess.

"Ok guys, time to go." I said being serious. "Remember the plan, take your time, be careful and watch out for each other. And we'll be okay."

"Be careful son." I told Takashi as I shook his hand.

"Hai." He said taking my hand in both of his and bowing.

I returned his bow, and then looked over towards Saeko.

"Saeko-chan, you be careful too sweetie. And remember, I'm right here watching you."

Saeko looked at me for a long moment without responding, and then grabbed my arm, squeezing it so tightly; it felt like a death grip.

"Jimu-san promise me you won't do something stupid again!" She said, her voice sounding so grief-stricken, I knew I had not better make any type of joke right now, even though I was a little put out by her describing my earlier actions to keep everyone safe as stupid.

Not reckless, not risky, not even dumb.

Stupid.

Ah well.

* * *

I sighed as I gave her a hug. She wasn't crying, but I could tell just how badly she feared for my safety by the way she was shaking.

It was like a knife to the gut.

This normally proud, strong, young woman who had shown so much strength and courage in the past two days was completely unsettled because she was worrying about me.

And the guilt I felt for causing her to be affected in such a way so deeply, tore me up inside.

Most young children I ever met in the field back when I was a fireman were difficult to approach sometimes. When a child is hurt by an adult and you need to treat the child, it's not unexpected when the child reacts in fear because the child doesn't trust you.

Especially when you're a six foot monster like me. But being the senior medic on most calls, it was my job to make contact and handle the situation.

But when you do gain the trust of a child, it's heartbreaking to find out just how badly they've been injured, and then because you've gained their trust, they bond with you, and are afraid to go anywhere else without you.

And the cries they make, as EMS or Child Protective Services and the Police have to take them away without you just rips your guts out.

Especially for a person like me who loves kids and has always wanted a family of my own, and has to sit there watching so-called "parents" treat one of God's greatest gifts to mankind, as nothing more than something they scraped off their shoe.

It happens more times than you think, and more times than I care to remember.

Teenagers are even more cautious around adults than most people would think.

As they go through that wonderful, yet confusing, and often frustrating part of their lives, growing up from childhood to becoming strong, independent adults. Most teens become less responsive to adults, many becoming more withdrawn.

Or, they may be outgoing and happy on the surface, but are really troubled deep down, nonetheless.

Few teens will open themselves up to an adult unless they REALLY feel they can trust them.

And now I had a whole group of teens more worried about my safety than they were about their own, it seemed.

And this young woman grabbing my arm was more worried than the rest.

Scratch that. She was SCARED.

* * *

"Takashi." I said looking at him again. "Give us a moment will ya buddy? Saeko will be down in a minute."

The teen nodded and once again hurried down to the others below.

I pulled off my hat and NOD, and placed them on the ground and then gazed into Saeko's face.

"Saeko-chan." I said as I leaned closer to her. "I promise you sweetie. I won't do anything STUPID."

Like I said, Saeko was wise beyond her years and saw the loophole in my answer.

"You know what I mean!" Saeko said.

"You must promise me that you won't take any unnecessary risks! That you won't do anything unsafe! PROMISE me you'll call for help first! Prom_.

"SAEKO!" I said interrupting her as I hugged her once more.

"It'll be okay. Don't worry, honey." I said as I held the girl realizing that Saeko's worry over me was much worse than I imagined.

"PROMISE ME!" Saeko said her voice straining to keep from shouting.

"I promise honey. I promise." I said as she painfully dug into my arm.

* * *

I realized then at that moment, that unless I did something now, she was only going to get herself killed because all her focus would be on me instead of the people in her charge.

I couldn't let this continue any further.

Many times in my career I had to convince people that going to the hospital was for their own good despite the fact that the person would always argue that they felt fine, no matter the fact that they were the ones who dialed 911 in the first place.

Sometimes when reasoning wouldn't work, I had to pull some half-baked excuse to try to knock some sense into someone.

Saeko was a good girl with a heart of gold underneath the Warrior image. And as cheesy as my next few words would sound, perhaps I could convince her to focus on her own life and that of her friends, and not worry about a lonely old man who had taken a bunch of children under his wing because he had no children of his own.

After all unlike them, I was expendable.

* * *

"Do you know what my favorite movie is Saeko-chan?" I asked finally coming up with an idea I prayed would be enough to convince the girl to move on without me.

"No." She said not raising her head. "She probably thought I was nuts for bringing up such a weird subject as that in the middle of all this, but I had a good reason.

"The Last Samurai. With Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise." I replied. "Absolutely love that movie."

"Why are you telling me this?" Saeko asked, still looking at me and obviously confused by my words.

""Because there are two scenes in it that really moved my heart. Matter of fact, they moved me to tears."

"What scenes are those?" Saeko asked, probably wondering where this conversation was headed.

"The main scene that choked me up was the scene where actor Ken Watanabe as Lord Katsumoto is leading his men on horseback through Edo, and everyone is bowing to the Samurai as they ride slowly through the street. It was a beautiful scene that I thought paid such HUGE respect to such noble warriors. It choked me up seeing them portrayed so strong, so powerful, so dignified, and so NOBLE."

"Still chokes me up every time." I said as she looked at me. "The soundtrack was kick-ass too."

Saeko laughed a little at my comment, but I still had a point to make.

* * *

"My point is hon, that's your heritage. The strength, loyalty, pride, and honor of those noble warriors runs in your veins. There are thousands of people around the world who admire the Samurai and what they stood for, and so do I."

"I've seen you fight, and I've seen your strength and courage when everyone was threatened. I've also seen how wise and compassionate you are towards everyone, including me. And I knew that you were the perfect choice to help lead this group, and I want you to know, I really have a lot of faith in you, because I know the warrior that you really are."

"I can't tell you how moved I am that all of you care about me so much. But worrying about me is a distraction you do not need. And I could not live with myself if any of you got hurt trying to help me."

"Look hon,I'm not some decrepit old man who needs help walking down the street Saeko-chan. I'm an old man sure, compared to a teenager. But I'm not that ancient and helpless."

"I am a mercenary remember? A man who gets paid to fight."

"You have to stop worrying about me. Your duty now is to those people down there, and you must remain focused on the task at hand, and you must not be distracted by anything else right now, do you understand?"

"Hai." Saeko said quietly, still hesitant.

My words weren't reaching her quite as well as I had hoped.

Time to lay it all out and really speak from the heart now.

* * *

"BUSUJIMA, SAEKO!" I said sternly through gritted teeth." You are the descendent of a proud group of elite warriors that have fought and died with honor throughout history. This is no time to allow yourself to be distracted by petty worries."

Saeko flinched at the sudden change in my voice, but it was the only way left for me to try to reach her.

"Give me your hand." I told her.

Saeko offered her hand as a lady would offer a man, gingerly and with the palm down.

"That type of hand you're offering me is indeed the proper etiquette for a lady of a Samurai House." I said lifting my hand up till it was level with her face.

"I want the hand of the warrior who I am honored and proud to be fighting with by her side."

Saeko looked at me, and then comprehending finally, slammed her hand in mine and clasped my hand in the universal gesture of camaraderie that warriors share together.

"My real name is Jim C_." I said, and I could tell that even though the darkness concealed her face, she was still shocked to hear my words.

"My real identity I have kept secret until now. Of everyone else here, I have absolute trust in you, and I will only reveal this truth to you."

"Do you however, trust me, Saeko-chan?"

"Hai." Saeko replied.

"What are the Seven Virtues of Bushido?" I asked her firmly.

Saeko stared at me for a moment confused, I suppose, by my question.

"WHAT are the Seven Virtues of BUSHIDO, BUSUJIMA, SAEKO?" I hissed.

Saeko looked at me for a moment, and then answered.

* * *

"_Gi." She said quietly._

"RECTITUDE." I said aloud.

"_Yuuki."_ She said with more conviction.

"COURAGE." I said just as loud, translating her words in English as she recited the seven virtues of Bushido in Japanese.

"_JIN!"_ She said gripping my hand tighter.

"BENEVOLENCE."

"_REI!" _

"RESPECT."

"_MAKOTO!"_

"HONESTY."

"_MEIYO!"_

"HONOR."

"_CHUGI!"_

"LOYALTY." I said gazing upon her as I could see the visible change in her demeanor.

"BUSUJIMA, SAEKO." I said. "You are a warrior, and you have been entrusted with the lives of your comrades. It is your DUTY to help those who cannot help themselves. Can I count on you?"

"HAI!" Saeko said her voice filled with courage and conviction.

"You are of Samurai blood Busujima-san. A warrior of noble blood and the task before you is difficult. Can I trust you?"

"HAI!"

"As warriors, we fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, yes?" I said looking at her face.

"HAI!"

"And also as warriors, we protect those who cannot protect themselves, agreed?"

"HAI!"

"We do this not because we seek glory, but because we feel that it is our duty."

"HAI!"

"Our profession is an honorable one, and we are honorable people."

"HAI!"

"And if we die while carrying out our duty?"

"WE DIE WITH HONOR!" Saeko finished.

"We are warriors, Saeko-chan." I said gently. "And it is time to do our duty."

"HAI!" Saeko said, squeezing my hand even tighter, her voice no longer shaky, no longer unsure of herself.

She was no longer weakened with worry over some stranger she had bonded with because her own father wasn't here.

She wasn't a four-year old child in pigtails from some lonely man's dream either.

She was the same strong, courageous young woman I had met only yesterday, the same as she had always been before.

* * *

For most of her life she had lived and breathed the warrior's code.

When the Outbreak had occurred, she had been the only one in her entire school mentally and emotionally prepared to deal with the horror around her and had fought like a lion keeping her friends safe. But she was also wise beyond her years, and had seen to the emotional and physical needs of everyone around her as well.

But all those years of mental and emotional discipline had come unhinged after watching me nearly die right in front of her, and her knowing that I had purposefully let go of the railing so that she wouldn't die trying to help me.

It had caused her to experience an emotional overload that she had been unable to deal with.

Even the strongest, most dedicated warrior will experience a time where they hit a wall they can't handle alone, and need help from someone to help them get over it, both figuratively and literally.

I had been the cause of Saeko's stumbling block. And now, in a small way, I had helped her get over the emotional block that was holding her back.

The fear, the worry, the emotional stumbling block that had caused such an upset in her was now gone.

Her confidence, her inner strength had re-surfaced.

My words had finally reached her heart, and had reminded her of who she was.

She was herself again, strong, confident, and fearless.

* * *

And then instead of leaving well enough alone and because I'm an idiot, I did something really stupid.

I hadn't meant any harm, and I guess I did it because my heart ached for a child of my own.

Or maybe it was because I wanted to pass something down to Saeko to remember me by.

Or maybe because I was feeling so alone, I guess.

And so after finally reaching through to this girl and convincing her to be strong,...I screwed everything up.

Because at that particular moment I was also so very proud of her.

And once again, I treated her as if she were my baby girl, and I reached over and gently put my other hand on the back of her head as I rested my forehead against hers.

It is a bonding gesture among husbands and wives, and amongst parents and children of the Native American people of my country.

And it is a bonding ritual that I had also wished to share with my own wife, and my own child.

And because I was thinking with my heart instead of my head, I shared that bond with Saeko, whom I now loved as my daughter.

And if I had only realized the damage it would do later, I would have stopped before I began.

But I was a lonely fool with no family of my own.

And now, I had a "daughter" that I was beginning to care deeply about.

Like I said, I'm an idiot.

And as I held her, I spoke from my heart, not realizing the effect it would have later on this poor teenage girl who was more vulnerable than I realized.

* * *

"It is an honor for me to live and fight by your side Busujima, Saeko."

"And it is my honor to live and fight by your side Jimu C_." Saeko replied, as I felt her place her other hand on the back of my head in the same gesture of affection.

Nothing has ever touched me to my heart as deeply as that moment did, or ever will.

Only those who have fought and survived tragedy together could understand the feeling.

The gesture was not just affection. Its meaning was more profound.

We had bonded as fellow warriors, heart, strength, mind, and soul.

Few bonds are closer, or more unique than that.

* * *

After a moment, we embraced each other in a hug once more, and then it was time to go.

"It's time to go, Saeko. And don't worry, I'll be near, and I promise you, we will survive this." I managed to say, trying hard to keep from choking up.

"Hai." Saeko said quietly as she removed herself from my embrace.

I listened to her move quietly behind me as I stared out into the darkness, not wanting to watch her go.

I had managed to convince her to leave and to focus on her life and the lives of the other teens below. If I were back in the Fire Dept. and I had just convinced another person to think of their own safety like I just had with Saeko, I would have called this a success.

Instead, I felt really guilty about what I had just done.

Because in reality, I had unintentionally deceived her just because I thought it would save her life.

* * *

"The Last Samurai" is indeed my favorite movie, but truth be told, the noble image of the samurai in that film was panned by many critics, particularly those from Japan no less.

And while I do admire the spirit of the Samurai values, in reality as Japan's ruling elite for centuries, the samurai were not so highly admired by the people in the lower classes as was portrayed n the Tom Cruise movie.

To be fair, many Samurai did indeed live by the values they honored and treated others fairly and protected those living on their lands.

But all you would have to do is watch enough Japanese cinema to realize that was not always the case with others.

Just by watching my two favorite actors Toshiro Mifune and Shintaro Katsu of _Zatoichi _fame was enough to convince me that some of the Samurai didn't quite live up to those lofty standards they preached about.

But to motivate Saeko to not worry about me, I essentially lied to her about what I really felt.

And even though it worked, I felt like such a bastard after she left, and I was ashamed to look her in the face.

But there was also another reason I couldn't face her either.

I couldn't look back because my eyes were burning with tears as I heard her walk away.

It had only been two days that I had been with these teenagers, and already I was falling apart at the thought of losing them.

From the time I turned eighteen to now at forty-five, I had longed to be a husband and father, and for twenty-eight years of my life I returned to an empty home.

And in just two days, these young people, and in particular, this one young girl had filled the void that had been absent in my heart for so long.

And it was tearing me apart as well.

But as much as I wished it, Saeko was still the daughter of someone else. And it hurt like hell knowing soon she and the others would be back in the arms of their family, and I'd have to move on with my life again, alone.

* * *

"Jimu-san?" I heard Saeko say behind me interrupting my thoughts.

"Yeah, sweetie?" I replied, blinking back my tears hoping she wouldn't notice me being a big baby right now, especially after that big inspirational speech I'd given about being brave and all that.

"You said there were two scenes in that movie that moved you to tears. What was the other one?''

Saeko looked at the shadow of the man still kneeling at the top of the hill. For a moment she grew concerned when the American did not immediately answer her. Then she heard the man chuckle as he finally spoke.

* * *

"Oh, that." The man replied.

"The "Ninja Attack" scene of course, sweetie." He replied.

"They finally make a movie with a really cool ninja battle scene using realistic ninja tactics and fighting styles without all that magical silliness you see in all the really bad ninja movies and animes."

"And then the Samurai just wiped them out."

"It just wasn't fair. I cried for days."

Saeko nearly burst out laughing at the American's completely unexpected reply. As it was, she had to hold both hands over her mouth in order to muffle the sound of her voice as her eyes teared up from laughing so hard.

After a few moments Saeko finally gained control of herself and looked back up toward the top of the hill to respond to the man's silly comment. But the large shadow of the man was no longer there where she had last seen him.

He had simply vanished into the night without a sound.

Saeko was at first alarmed by his sudden disappearance and thought of calling out to him. But then stopped herself.

Not only would have it been dangerous of her to call his name out loud and thus accidentally give the man's position away, but she also realized that she had almost called out to him because of the same fear the man had tried so hard to help her overcome.

"No." Saeko said to herself staring at the spot where the man had disappeared.

"He trusts me to fulfill my duty to the others." Saeko thought. "And I must respect his faith and trust in me and place my faith and trust in him as well, and not worry."

"Besides, "Shadow Warriors" are supposed to melt into the night and vanish, even one as silly as that one." Saeko giggled.

Saeko Busujima bowed towards the spot where the American had been, and spoke from the innermost depths of her heart.

"Domo arigato gozaimas, Jimu-san." Saeko said as she bowed low for a moment in gratitude to the man that had done more for her than he would ever truly realize.

Saeko then quietly walked down the hill and joined the others who immediately surrounded and embraced their friend, now that she had returned.

Kneeling in the knee-high grass away from the edge of the hill carefully scanning the area behind the people under his protection, a lone figure shrouded in darkness spoke in a language not his own.

"Do itashimashite….watashi no musume." The shadowy figure said sadly.

("You're welcome… my daughter.")

* * *

I watched the small group of teens led by Saeko and with Kouta acting as rear guard, as they walked down the dimly lit road leading to the section of the city that would lead us to the condo that we would be spending the night, hopefully keeping us safe from the walking death that prowled the streets. It was less than two miles away, but a lot could happen in that distance as any Military personnel can tell you.

The fireman I once was, was gone.

The mercenary I was now would have to be fully focused, and ready to act. The danger had increased a hundredfold with darkness now fallen upon us and there was no telling what we'd face getting there or how safe the condo would be once we arrived. Either way, I needed to be ready for anything and hope that I was good enough to protect the group from whatever dangers we would face.

Overconfidence in one's abilities' can kill a man just as easily as a bullet, so I pushed myself to be cautious and move quietly and stay hidden from all eyes as best as I could. It's not easy for a rookie PMC to avoid being silhouetted by the lights of the city in an open field with no vegetation around except the knee-high grass I walked through.

But with the streets mostly clear of civilians trying to hide from the Infected, I was not in as much danger as if I were a commando trying to avoid detection while deep behind enemy lines.

America was not at war with Japan, as far as I knew anyway, and I was not worried about making contact with enemy combatants anyway. The Infected, and people stupid enough or crazy enough to pose a threat to the teens was my main concern.

As the teens walked down the road, I followed them for about 50 meters before I knelt down in the grass keeping watch and waiting for the sound of Takashi's motorcycle engine to start, once the teens had walked another 50 meters and Takashi started her up.

I was watching the horde of Infected through my NOD as they continued to move forward towards the sound of all those people who were so desperately trying to run away from the Infected.

And as I heard Takashi drive by I was happy to see that none of "Them" had reacted to the sound of the motorbike.

"Well done, kids." I thought as I stood up and started trailing behind Saeko's small band, walking in a sort of "zig-zag" pattern 50 meters behind, trailing them from on top of the hill just out of their sight.

It was actually more of a" sawtooth"pattern of walking actually.

I would walk in a long line towards the teens so I could check on them, and then I would gradually break off to my left towards the field remaining out of sight, and then gradually head back towards the teens. The reason for this is because the changes I made would make it harder for someone to track me if I was being followed, and I could spot him too, once I changed direction, and also checking my rear every so often.

Sounds confusing, but it works, because walking in a straight line is a BIG no-no.

Walking in a straight line is death in combat from what I had learned from the guys in GREEN Team.

That and using the same route back.

* * *

"Never do that again ya stupid wanker." My mentor and best friend Andrew, formerly of 22nd Reg. SAS had bawled me out for doing just that, on a practice exercise.

"What are ya trying to do? Hand your arse over to the enemy by walking straight in, making a really nice trail that everyone can see, and then come right back out the same way you came in? Geez, you Yanks are dumb."

If I had been a new recruit that had just passed Selection for the SAS and made that kind of mistake, I shudder to think what the "Boys from Hereford" would have done to me.

Well, I got off light actually, just with the chewing out and the calisthenics afterwards. And of course, I never did the same thing again.

And as I continued my lone patrol, I tried to remain focused on what I was doing as if I really was in combat in enemy territory.

Overconfidence can kill, but being sloppy will without a doubt, end your life as well as those with you. So I pushed myself hard to avoid being careless. But in truth, I was plagued by the thoughts that kept nagging me in the back of my head.

For one, the situation I was in with the teens reminded me of another movie that I loved to watch. "The Magnificent Seven" which was an American re-make of the Japanese classic by Akira Kurosawa "The Seven Samurai."

In the American version, one of the mercenary gunmen played by actor Charles Bronson was a character named "Bernardo", a gunfighter who was actually a pretty decent fellow. In the movie, he had given a flute he made to a little girl, and he had even been "adopted" by a group of small village boys that looked up to him as a hero.

That small part of the movie was VERY similar to my current situation, and I had noticed the similarities awhile earlier and was a little troubled by it a bit.

That and another thing that was bothering me.

Just before I had slipped away into the darkness, I had lied to Saeko, twice.

* * *

My favorite scene in "The Last Samurai" was NOT the ninja scene, although that was pretty awesome too, by the way.

But my favorite scene besides the one where the Samurai rode into town, was the very last scene when actor Tom Cruise is walking up to the tiny village in the mountains and returns to the woman he loves and her two children. And the British actor Timothy Spall recites my favorite line from the movie.

"_But I like to think he may have at last found some small measure of peace, that we all seek, and few of us ever find."_

* * *

There are a few ways that my own life mimics the lives of those two characters in those movies.

And like Tom Cruise's character, Nathan Algren, I always hoped and prayed that I would find that "small measure of peace" that seemed to elude me all these years.

But now here I was, in a foreign country in the middle of the biggest clusterf_ck anyone could have ever possibly imagined, with five teens and one school nurse in tow. And the chances of finding that "small measure of peace" were looking a hell of a lot smaller.

I had lied to Saeko, mostly to keep her from worrying about me, and at the same time, I was trying desperately to sound upbeat even though her question had choked me up something fierce and it had been a struggle to make up something else to answer her with.

I didn't want her to know about that scene.

Saeko was a smart girl. And she would have figured out that the reason I loved that scene so much was because my own life had been so full of turmoil and pain from the things I've experienced that she probably would have pushed herself even more to try to help me from staying out of danger. And I didn't want her taking that risk.

Maybe I was overthinking things. But I didn't want to take that chance.

No, I would not take that chance, not with her life, and so I had lied.

And the second lie?

* * *

Well, that was when I made my promise to not take any more unnecessary risks any more.

Fearing that I would be killed, Saeko had made me promise that I wouldn't do anything risky while we were traveling enroute towards the condo of Shizuka's friend.

OKAY! I KNOW! Saeko had said "Promise me you won't do anything, STUPID."

What I did earlier to save everyone's lives WASN'T STUPID, OKAY?!

There, I said it.

Just don't tell Saeko.

I don't wanna get slapped again.

* * *

Anyway, I had promised Saeko I wouldn't do anything "stupid." What this really meant was, I would not put my life at risk for them again.

But the truth was even though I had made that promise, there was no way I would keep it.

It wasn't because I was determined to throw myself in harm's way every chance that danger would present itself, or that I had intentionally tried to deceive Saeko .

The truth is none of us knew what would happen before our journey together ended.

I hoped fervently that in the end, everyone would be safe, and maybe I would find that ever elusive happiness and contentment just like Nathan Algren.

But unfortunately I had to admit, the chances were even better that it was beginning to look more and more like my fate would be the same as "Bernardo's", who towards the end of the movie, when the battle was all but won and everyone was safe, while trying to keep the young boys from getting hurt Bernardo is killed right in front of them.

My reasons for that fear were because of one simple truth that was tipping the scales in that direction, as I froze in midstep.

When I was a teenager, I wanted only two things in life. A career in the Military as a SEAL, and a family of my own.

When I came to that crossroad in my life of which direction I would take, I went the opposite of where I really wished to go, and that decision has plagued me ever since, even though I had chosen a profession that I was still very proud of and I hoped had helped make a positive difference in the lives of the people who called for help.

But throughout my life, I have always wondered what my life would have been like if I had just been man enough to stand my ground, and walk away from the things that had forced me not to follow my dream.

And I'll always wonder what my life would have been like if I had gone through with it, and pursued my dream and had made it into the Teams after all.

I will always be plagued by that unanswerable question.

Later, I came across another crossroads in my life when I chose to leave the Fire Service and become a PMC, and tried to somewhat reverse the decision I had made so long ago.

It wasn't the same as being in the SEAL Teams. But it was as close as I was ever going to get to working alongside men I greatly admired.

Even though none of them were frogmen themselves.

Dammit.

* * *

I still considered it an honor like no other, and I was thrilled to be among them, even though it had been short-lived.

But now, I was at another crossroads in my life, and the choice was whether to escape and evade and link up with the guys at the American Embassy, or to stop and help these young teens and their nurse struggling to survive even though it was likely I might die in the effort.

I had made my choice without hesitation. A crucial decision that would have far-reaching consequences that I had no clue of at the time.

The decision had put me in so much danger, my head was still reeling just from what had happened in the past few hours.

And one of the consequences of that decision was here to bite me in the butt all over again, before I could even catch my breath it seemed.

After about 20 minutes of traveling together, with me still trailing behind the teens as I made my way through the grassy field, I spotted them in my NOD moving quickly across the field in the darkness headed directly towards the kids coming from the opposite direction.

My hunch had been right.

* * *

There was danger from others besides the Infected out here. And they had just entered the scene, stage left.

My lying to Saeko hadn't been intentional. I really hate lying, even though I've had to stretch the truth over the years.

But I couldn't keep that promise to Saeko. Not without putting her and the others at risk as well.

And I just couldn't do that, not to them.

And most certainly, not to my "daughter."

"I'm sorry baby. But there are no promises in combat." I said, as I moved quickly and quietly to intercept the new threat.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Well at long last, the end of "Crossroads", but not the end of the story.

It was never my intention to have Saeko be a cry-baby throughout the story. But I did want to forge the bond between Saeko and Jim, and I hope I accomplished that by what I've written.

As I was wondering how I'd go about finishing "Crossroads" my favorite movie "The Last Samurai came out on TV again, and again, I drew inspiration for how Jim would help Saeko get through her emotional block and cement the bond between them.

I have been recommended a few songs from readers that were suggested for some of the chapters in my fanfic and they've been nice to hear.

I was listening to "Idyll's End" from the soundtrack, and to me, it REALLY set the pace and the mood for when Saeko and Jim are reciting the Seven Virtues of Bushido as Jim is trying to re-inspire Saeko to remember who she really is at heart.

I highly recommend listening to it at least for that scene. The part in the track I used to write that scene starts at 4:50.

And for the Rika fans, I tossed in another cameo, as well as a cameo by a certain friend of mine from across the "Pond."

"Crossroads." Is just another chapter in my fanfic that grew much bigger than I imagined, and I hope you have all enjoyed what you've read.

For all of you that take the time to write a review, my sincerest THANKS!

For those of you who read my fanfic, my sincerest THANKS to all of you as well.

I would still love to hear from more of you.

The next chapter will focus on the trip to Rika's condo, and the group finally getting there.

Thanks again for your support!

Next Chapter: Last Alarm – Chapter 19- "Death in the tall grass."


	19. Chapter 18 - Death in the Tall Grass

Last Alarm

Chapter Eighteen

"Death in the Tall Grass"

* * *

When I was eighteen years old and still only a rookie EMS Technician, a partner I once worked with was also a part-time a martial-arts Instructor. And during a particularly boring shift, he told me something that I would have never thought about before.

He was a former policeman and had been in the military as well, and what he told me, even though I thought he was just showing off at the time, was that one of the deadliest people out there in the world is the medical professional, especially those that are involved in emergency care.

His reasoning for saying that was because people in the medical profession especially medics, are intensely trained on human anatomy and how it works and also what are its weaknesses, like it's pressure points, bone joints and so forth.

I thought the guy was just nuts at the time, but in truth, I actually found his reasoning's correct after I thought about it awhile. Although I have to say even after all these years, it still seemed kind of a strange subject to have been brought up in the middle of a shift.

Soldiers, spies and the like are trained on where to strike to be the most effective to put down an antagonist quickly, and so as part of their self-defense training they are given instruction on the vulnerable parts of the human body. But a person, whose job **is** the care of the human body, can indeed be one of the deadliest people around, if so inclined.

There are those out there, who were once respectable doctors, nurses, and medics at one time, and then something snapped and these same people who were once dedicated to helping people, went off the deep end and committed some of the most horrible acts against people.

In San Antonio, where I live, a couple of nurses over the years were convicted of poisoning patients while they were admitted, in a couple of the hospitals here in town. And also, a couple doctors were accused of the same thing as well.

Of course, those cases are extreme, but an intimate understanding of the human anatomy has helped many an assassin in the past take out a target with the least amount of effort, just by a better than average knowledge of the human body.

* * *

I'm **no** assassin, and I **certainly** never aspired to be. And I certainly **do not **go around thinking about killing people just because I know how the human body works. Guys who start talking like that don't stay in Emergency Services for long, thank goodness.

But when the guys on GREEN Team taught me some of the techniques they did for unarmed combat and also when Andrew taught me a few "extras", it was my experience as a Paramedic that helped me to understand what it was that a certain pressure point, or bone strike, or knife thrust, or gunshot would do.

In short, while I had trained all my life to **help** people with these kinds of injuries in order to help save their lives, I was now being taught how to **inflict **these injuries on others to save **our** lives.

And my prior training as a medic helped me to be able to function in that role.

Talk about irony though.

* * *

I had learned a few of these same unarmed techniques years ago when I had studied Ninpo. Koppjutsu (bone-breaking) pressure points, etc, were covered very well in those books I read, so it helped in my training with GREEN Team, although the unarmed combat the guys taught me was **way** more dynamic than the Ninpo taijutsu I was familiar with.

And of course, all the shooting I had done back in Nevada had really improved my marksmanship and my confidence with weaponry. So basically, when my training was over, I had a better understanding of my capabilities in combat.

But none of those things I had learned could take away the fear I was feeling right now as I hurried to intercept a small party of about six people coming in from the left near the edge of the hill, closing in on the teens from off in the distance as I pushed myself to intercept them before they could get to the teens.

Back when I was a teen, everybody loved watching the "Rambo" movies, especially "Rambo II", and of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Commando", "Terminator", and "Predator."

Everyone loves a hero, but after watching those two movies, everyone thought that anybody in Special Forces was a human killing machine, just like millions of people everywhere thought that every Texas Ranger knew karate after watching Chuck Norris in "Lone Wolf McQuade" and "Walker, Texas Ranger."

The guys in Special Operations of every country are extremely well trained professionals, and they are quite capable of inflicting serious damage on their own. But none of them intentionally go out alone intent on going against superior forces in superior numbers and attempt to level an entire enemy camp by themselves.

They operate as a team in coordination with other assets to accomplish their mission. They work as a "TEAM" period.

Some "Operatives" **have** to work solo, in the unspoken Covert War that goes on in the world every day. But the "Rambos" are only found in the movies, and not in actual Special Operations were people like that would just get someone hurt. Those kinds of guys are weeded out during "Selection."

As a Firefighter, I learned extremely well, the necessity of working as part of a team, and later as a PMC, I was taught the value of teamwork under fire as well,…. gunfire, that is.

However, when it comes to "escape and evade" time. Operatives will have to split up and work alone in an effort to escape, and that is a required part of training.

It was the same way I was trained, and it had proven extremely beneficial since I was forced to actually split from my buddies on GREEN Team yesterday at the park during our confrontation with the police and the Infected.

The point of going solo in that instance though, is to increase the odds of **escaping, **not going into battle, alone.

And now, despite all that experience and training in **teamwork**, here I was trying to intercept an armed party of unknown assailants by **myself**, trying to keep a small group of teens that I had taken under my wing, safe from harm.

Saeko was going to kill me.

* * *

I just really hoped there wasn't a Predator drone flying overhead filming my little commando wannabe stunt here, because I could just see that footage being used in Coronado, Ft. Bragg, and Hereford, as well as every other Spec Ops Training Centers around the world as a training video on the perfect example of what **not** to do in combat.

Wouldn't be surprised if the Spetznaz boys in Russia got a copy of it too.

The image of Retired USMC Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey standing in front of a huge projection screen as a guest speaker giving a lecture to soldiers and sailors in all Branches, including Spec Ops , SEALs, DELTA, RANGERS, etc, popped into my head as I double-timed it towards the figures in the distance closing in on the kids.

"OK, do all of you see this IDIOT right here? " I could just hear The Gunny say as he circles his laser pointer over the infrared image of me moving across the grassy field trying to take on an unknown enemy force all by myself.

"Yeah, THIS F_CKING IDIOT RIGHT HERE THAT THINKS HE CAN TAKE OUT AN ENEMY FORCE OF UNKNOWN SIZE AND STRENGTH ALL BY HIMSELF?!

"Well boys, DON'T EVER DO THAT!"

"THIS is what you DON'T WANNA F_CKING DO, EVER!"

"DO YOU ALL KNOW WHY HE'S GONNA F_CKING DIE?! "

"BECAUSE HE'S A F_CKING IDIOT!"

"YOU ARE A TEAM! YOU WORK TOGETHER AS A TEAM!"  
"DON'T ANY OF YOU EVER DO WHAT THIS F_CKING IDIOT IS DOING!"

"THIS is what happens when you are trying REALLY hard to prove to the world, that YOU ARE F_CKING STUPID!"

"DO YOU GET ME?!"

"WE GET YOU, GUNNY!" I could just hear the class acknowledge.

"мы получаем, Gunny!" (Russian Spetznaz.)

"OUTSTANDING! Now let's all watch quietly now as they blow his ass away." Gunny Ermey would say as the film would continue on and everyone would witness my untimely demise.

Oh well, at least I'd be immortalized for something.

* * *

We had been through hell enough I had thought, but it seemed like every bad guy in the world was intent on targeting our little band even though the whole friggin' world was falling apart around us and I figured there just **had** to be better opportunities for mayhem with some other helpless people around, **somewhere**.

"Apparently not though." I thought, as I rapidly closed the distance between myself and the incoming group of unknown hostiles. Although I couldn't see them, I could tell just about exactly **when** I passed the kids as I heard them talking while they were still traveling along the road below, blissfully unaware of the drama unfolding on the hill above their heads.

At least Saya wasn't screaming at Kouta for once. And as I passed them I began making a wider berth away from the edge of the hill trying to keep from being detected and also trying to flank the group coming towards us.

Unlike the last time where the street gang had snuck up on us, I had the advantage of spotting these people in the dark with my NOD, and I was also closely trailing the kids this time versus being stuck up on a bridge, and unable to get to them.

So as far as I could see, even though the odds were still very much against me, I still had the element of surprise going for me as long as I didn't bungle it all up and get spotted.

I was also fortunate in another aspect. These people approaching were civilians with whatever weapons they could scavenge nearby. They also were not trained enemy combatants that I was going against; otherwise I'd have been clearly outmatched.

And even if they had firearms, their selection was limited. Japan has some of the **strictest** gun laws around, so other than a few hunting rifles, shotguns and stolen police weapons, I didn't think they'd be packing an arsenal of weapons like I could expect back home.

I say this with no exaggeration, in Texas alone guns easily outnumber people about 1000 to 1, and even then that's a guesstimate. So if these guys had been my fellow Texans out there on the hunt, the chances were good they'd be packing heavier weaponry, night vision and body armor and more ammo than an AC130 (Spooky) gunship, and it would have been game over for me.

What can I say? Americans love their guns and Texans have more guns to love than anybody.

* * *

Once I passed the kids, I continued moving on a little further before I finally slowed down and then stopped, kneeling on the ground to observe the small group of men that were approaching.

There were six of them, all male, of different age groups and of all shapes and sizes. Each of them was armed with a variety of weapons. I saw knives, an axe, and one guy was even dressed like a butcher and was carrying a cleaver. But the real dangers were the two guys that I figured were the leaders of the group.

One of them looked like a really stressed-out office worker and the other was a bald fellow, shirtless with full body tattoos all over, and they were both carrying shotguns.

Up to this point, there had been no real sign of aggression by the party of six men when I finally got close enough to see them clearly. And despite appearances, I **really** hoped that they were just innocent refugees like ourselves, looking for a safe place to spend the night.

Yeah, right.

Unfortunately, the way they were approaching the kids made me highly suspicious as to their true intentions. They had been quietly walking across the field when I first spotted them while making a sweep of the field through my NOD.

But as they reached the edge of the hill and were about to walk down, I noticed the bald man had spotted the teens and gestured for everyone to hold up. There was some exchange of words between them and then they suddenly started moving towards the teens.

That wasn't too suspicious all by itself at first, but as they approached the kids, I could not help but notice they were making a seriously conscientious effort **not** to be detected by the teens.

That was another red flag.

* * *

And when they got to a distance I believed was close enough to be able to see without a doubt that it was a group of teenagers coming their way, they didn't make any effort to reveal themselves or make any other signs of friendly intent whatsoever.

But rather, to my disappointment, they began moving in position for an ambush-style attack.

I had passed the kids by about 70 meters or so when five of the men suddenly went to the ground on their bellies about 60meters away from where I stopped. I froze, keeping my carbine trained on them, just in case they had spotted me.

One of them did not lie on the ground with the others but continued on, heading towards me while keeping his eye on the teens. It was the office worker with the shotgun.

Now things had **really** gotten complicated.

Any doubt as to what these guys were up to though disappeared after I saw these men move into position for an ambush on the kids.

An ambush. On, **kids**.

I couldn't believe it either.

* * *

From the way they were positioning themselves, I could pretty much guess their plan, and I have to admit, it was a well thought out plan in a sick and disgusting kind of way.

The office worker approaching my position with the shotgun would probably settle down in a nice spot and wait for the kids to pass by, and then he would raise his shotgun and take out Kouta, who was still carrying my M24 and was the most visible threat from their point of view.

And since Kouta was covering the rear, he was just far enough away from Saya that she wouldn't be peppered by the shotgun blast once the man fired on him.

If the man wasn't able to take out Kouta with the first shot with his shotgun because of the range, he would still then have been successful at diverting Kouta's attention to him while the girls would run for cover, leaving the teen open to be shot at from behind by the other guy.

Kouta would then be caught in a crossfire, and it would be all over. And after Kouta was down, the rest of them would then swoop in and take their prize, namely, the girls.

As much as I had mentally prepared myself for the possibility of being attacked by the street gang again, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. A bunch of grown men about to ambush a group of children, and their only reason for what they were doing was too sickening for words.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?" I thought to myself.

"Granted, the world is all upside down on its ass right now, but to start murdering and raping **children**?"

Like I said, people will do things that defy logic sometimes and here was a perfect example, although this was just too sick an act, **period**, to find any type of logic behind it.

* * *

As the man approached my position, I kept the holo image of the Eotech sight on his chest as he stealthily walked along the top of the hill about 20 feet away from the edge of it so the kids wouldn't see him as he headed straight towards me.

I'd been lucky; he was just moving into position and had not spotted me yet.

As I watched him, I was trying to slow my breathing and my heart rate trying to calm myself. As disgusted and worked up as I was, all I needed was for him to hear me breathing heavily and the jig was up.

I needed to calm down, focus, and handle this thing like a professional, and so I slowly lowered my carbine to the ground and took off my pack and left it lying there and then slowly raised the muzzle of my carbine up again as the man approached.

Even though it was really dark and it appeared I hadn't been spotted, any sudden movements or funny shapes in the dark can still be detected by the naked eye, so I did my best to lay low and restrict my movements as he approached.

I had my NOD flipped down and was keeping watch on the approaching "bad guy" as he moved forward. The nice thing about the NVS-14 NOD is that while I'm using it to see in the dark and watching through the scope with my right eye, my other eye is unobstructed so I can still see everything else around me and not get "tunnel vision" like a pair of NVG's where both eyes are used to peer through the scope.

One of the things that the guys told me was **never** get "tunnel vision" in combat, and this fellow here was the perfect example why. He was so pre-occupied in trying to avoid being seen by the kids and getting into position to ambush them that he wasn't even bothering to watch out for any threats. Namely, me.

That shotgun in his arms must have made him feel **really** invincible I suppose.

"Wonder just how many innocent people he's killed today?" I thought as he quickly approached my position.

As he approached, I could tell looking out of my left eye that it was way **too** dark for the other men in his party to see him as he walked towards me as far away from the edge of the hill that he was, where the light dimmed significantly.

The dim illumination of the lampposts down there on the road on the side of the canal was not very bright, probably because of power surges within the city, apparently.

The lights **were** bright enough to see anyone walking on the road down there like the teens were, but the brightness was not extremely brilliant up here which is why I chose to trail the kids from up on top of the hill in the first place.

The advantage of the dim light prevented the kids from seeing him, but the conditions for me to be able to take him out without being detected by his buddies were also absolutely_

"Perfect." I thought as I reached down and pulled my SCUBA/DEMO knife from the sheath strapped to my leg.

* * *

Thirty-eight year old Shinichi Sato had been watching the small group of teenagers, slowly closing the distance between where they were and the small group of men in his party waited, lying on the ground in ambush.

The men he had left behind were waiting for him to fire the first shot at the only armed person in the group of teens, a fat kid holding a military sniper rifle.

When the teens had first been spotted, the leader of his group had immediately ordered everyone to fall back into the shadows, and then after a brief exchange of words had decided that they would intercept whoever it was that was coming down the road.

And as the small group approached, the sight of those three extremely cute girls walking in line had greatly excited everyone's anticipation of the easy target that had presented itself in front of them.

Since he was the better shot, their leader had appointed Shinichi to move on ahead and take out the fat kid who was walking behind the girls. Once the boy was taken out, the girls would be completely helpless without their protector, and the rest of the men would then rush in.

All the years of watching all those pretty snobbish office girls walking around flaunting themselves, and snubbing him, flashed in Shinichi's mind as he gazed towards the teens slowly approaching the hastily planned Kill Zone.

The little one with the light brown hair carrying a broom handle for a spear reminded him of one particular office girl that had been especially nasty to him when he had cozied up against her in the subway. She cursed him for the way he had pressed himself against her in the subway after work and had then told the rest of the office about what a pervert he was, much to his embarrassment.

The teenager wasn't the same girl, but she looked close enough, Shinichi thought as he watched her approach with the other teens.

"Let's see what happens now when I get my hands on you girlie." The man thought as he slowly moved forward, carefully trying to get into position where he could find the perfect firing spot to lie on his belly and wait for the teens to pass by so he could snipe the boy.

After walking a few more feet, he finally found a spot that seemed like a good enough distance away from the other men to be at the perfect angle to snipe the fat kid as soon as they had passed him by. Now all he had to do was lie in wait for them.

* * *

The man was about to kneel to the ground and begin his crawl to the edge of the hill to get in firing position, but could not help but take one more lust-filled gaze at the brown-haired teenager one last time. As he gazed upon her trim figure in the short skirt and tight blouse of a high school student, the man could not help but be mesmerized by her beautiful body and the thoughts of the things he would do once the ambush was all over.

So enraptured was he with his perverse thoughts that he never saw or heard the dark figure approach from behind him as a strong hand clamped over his mouth and jerked his head back to the left as the sharp pointed tip of a knife with a seven inch dagger- like blade entered the side of his neck behind his clavicle at a downward angle, severing his trachea as it passed through and then slicing the carotid artery and aorta as the knife was "rocked" back and forth.

What little noise the man made as he felt the powerful hand clamp over his mouth and the pain of the knife entering his flesh was muffled and extremely brief, as his body was dragged away into the darkness. The man spasmed slightly as his muscles relaxed while the American dragged him some 30 feet away from the spot where he had been standing before.

As he lowered the man's body to the ground the American withdrew the knife that was still embedded in the man's neck and after wiping the blade on the dead man's shirt, placed it back in its sheath on his leg. The American then grabbed the man's head with both hands and then quickly twisted his neck breaking the man's seventh vertebrae and severing the spinal cord.

He then flipped the NOD on his head back down over his eye and scanned his surroundings for any indication that the other men had witnessed the attack.

Upon observing that the other men had not noticed the fate of their comrade, he then reached for his carbine that was slung across his back and then went back and retrieved the shotgun the man had dropped.

* * *

The guys in GREEN Team had taught me many things, but it was Andrew who had taken the time to teach me the "extras" of the trade. One of these "extras" was sentry removal, especially "silent" sentry removal.

Unlike all the movies where you see a commando come up behind an enemy and silently slit his throat and the guy falls down dead, the actual act of sentry removal with a knife is not as quick and not as clean. Unless you do it right, it can go really bad, **really** fast. It takes awhile for a human to die that way, and it takes skill to ensure a kill if done correctly.

I had seen pictures in history books of British Commandos in World War II training in those same techniques Andrew had taught me, practicing with their Fairbairn – Sykes commando knives.

And now here I was, using the same, age-old technique of killing silently.

I knew what I had to aim my knife for, when I thrust my knife into "bad guy" number one.

The trick was to do it quickly and silently without the guy firing a shot and warning the others in the process. And somehow I had done it without a hitch even though I thought the sound of my heart beating against my chest was going to give me away as fast as it was going when I came at him.

"And then after that." Andrew told me, "You have to be sure the bastard doesn't get back up again, in case there's still some life left in him. So make **sure** he's dead, Yank."

Which is why I broke his neck afterwards, even though it was overkill at this point, but I was alone out here and as ugly as it sounds, "Better safe than sorry."

Sentry removal with a knife is up close and personal, it is dirty, ugly, and brutal. It takes patience, skill and the right type of knife with a blade thin enough and long enough to reach the vital areas it needs to.

I've always been a knife aficionado, and my favorite primary knife is a replica of a UDT knife from the Vietnam War made by SOG Specialty Knives, called the SCUBA/DEMO. It's a large spear-point knife with a serrated edge on top of the blade and has a leather resin-impregnated handle and brushed stainless finish. It's a rare knife that's really hard to find now, and I was happy to have picked one up when I did.

Because it turned out to be just the thing I needed this night, and it worked splendidly.

If I hadn't been able to take him out quietly, then the men lying in wait further up would be opening fire on me and the kids, and I knew one or more of the teens would be lying dead or wounded at the end of it.

As messed up as it was, the ambush had been a smart plan overall and against untrained, scared civilians it would have worked easily without a problem.

"Glad I was there to screw it all up for them." I thought as I raised the muzzle of my carbine up and headed for the group of five still lying on the grass.

The kids had gotten ahead of me now and I was hard pressed to catch up. I had lost time trying to approach the first "bad guy" quietly without being detected and in the time I had taken him out and dragged him away, the kids were past my position I guessed from the sounds of Rei, Saeko, and Saya talking and I needed to hurry and get behind these other guys before they would start to get wise when their comrade didn't open up with his shotgun like he was supposed to.

* * *

"Busujima-sempai? " Rei said walking closer to Saeko. "Are you sure Jimu-san is **still** up there? I haven't seen any sign of him at all since we started walking."

"Hai." Saeko replied. "He specifically said he was intentionally trying to stay hidden in case someone might try to sneak up on us again. He thought it best to trail behind from up there so he could see anyone approaching from any direction."

"You don't think they'll be coming back, do you?" Saya asked the fear palpable in her voice as she moved even closer behind Rei. "He shot four of them. Why would the rest come back?"

Saeko could easily sense the growing panic in Saya's voice and tried to help calm her fears.

"I don't believe he thinks they would be foolish enough to try that again Takagi-san." Saeko replied. "But as Jimu-san said, "It is better to be safe than sorry."

"Well, maybe we should stop and ask him if he sees anything." Saya said, the fear starting to overcome her.

"How can we ask him anything if he's staying hidden?" Rei asked frowning.

"If he's watching us, he'll see us stopping and wonder what's wrong and then he'll come check on us." Saya replied, scowling back at Rei. "Mo, do I have to think of everything?"

Rei bristled slightly at Saya's comment and whirled around.

"If he does that, and if anyone really **is** watching us, then he'll be seen by them and be attacked. What sense does that make?" Rei retorted.

"We **don't** know if anyone's watching us. Everyone's probably hiding right now. Who would be stupid enough to be out here at night?" Saya snapped, the irony of her words lost on her.

"You mean people not quite as smart as we are, Takagi-san?" Saeko said smiling to herself.

Saya opened her mouth to speak as the irony of her words finally hit her, and she abruptly changed her mind and said nothing.

"Don't worry Takagi-san." Kouta said watching the road behind them as they walked.

"Men in a profession like Jimu-san's prefer to stay concealed in the shadows. They train to fight at night and it's the best way to ensure our safety from up there. We may not see him, but he's up there. Don't worry. I'll protect you as well Takagi-san, **with my life**." Kouta said smiling at Saya.

"Yuuuuck." Saya thought, looking sourly at the lovey-dovey look that was all over Kouta's face.

"Your very sweet, Hirano-kun." Saeko said staring at the two teens. "I'm jealous Takagi-san, having such a strong man like Hirano-kun as your guardian."

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT HIM AS MY GUARDIAN?!" Saya hissed through gritted teeth.

Rei and Saeko giggled at Saya's visible embarrassment as they continued walking.

* * *

"Here they come." The leader of the group said to the other men crouched in the darkness with him as the teens approached.

"Remember, as soon as Sato shoots the boy, **then** we head in."

"What if he screws it up?" The butcher, Umibozou whispered.

"He won't." The leader said. "He has his eye on that brown-haired girl. Trust me, he WON'T mess up."

After a few more moments, the teens suddenly stopped and began to converse loudly in the middle of the road. After a few moments, two of the girls suddenly ran into the darkness, leaving the older girl and the fat kid behind.

"What's going on?" One of the other men, a twenty-year old carrying an axe, asked out loud.

"Quiet, you IDIOT!" The leader hissed." You wanna scare them off? Probably went to pee or something, that's all. Stay still and SHUT UP!"

After a moment had passed with nothing happening, the men started to get anxious.

"What's keeping him?" The leader thought to himself. "He could have easily picked off those two by now."

"Sure is taking his sweet time, isn't he?" Umibouzo said." Did he lose his nerve or what?"

"I don't know." The leader grumbled as he lifted his sawed off shotgun. "But if he doesn't shoot in three seconds, I WILL!"

"All of you get ready!" The man hissed as everyone grabbed their weapons and tensed to spring as the man raised his shotgun.

"Ichi!" The leader counted off.

"Ni!" The men tensed themselves, all of them coiled up and ready to spring into action.

"Konban wa." A disturbingly calm voice said behind them.

* * *

After a five more minutes of walking, Saya forgot her fear as she began to focus on something **else **that was bothering her.

"How much further anyway?" Saya grumbled. "Aren't we close yet?"

"You have a map Takagi-san." Saeko said, starting to tire of her whining. "Take a look."

"Grrrrrrr." Saya grumbled to Saeko's reply, but reached for the map in her pocket anyway.

"It's only been perhaps thirty minutes since we started walking and she's complaining already." Rei thought, frowning as Saya unfolded her map.

"I hope we get there soon so I don't have to listen to her anymore. I can't take too much more of her whining."

After looking at the map and seeing that they still had another mile or so to go, Saya stuffed the map back in her pocket with a huff.

Saya moved up towards Rei and whispered into her ear. "I need to stop."

"What do you mean, you need to stop?" Rei said frowning, and then suddenly comprehended Saya's meaning as the teen looked at her anxiously.

"**Oh."** Rei said, "You know what? Me too, now that you mention it."

"Busujima-sempai?" Rei said, trying to get Saeko's attention. "We need to stop for a moment."

"Is there something wrong?" Saeko asked, concerned.

"Ano, Takagi-san, needs a break." Rei replied. "And quite frankly, so do I."

Saeko looked at the slightly anxious looks on the two girls faces and her eyes widened upon comprehending the girls meaning.

"**Oh**. Well, I understand your need, believe me. But this is hardly the place or the time. It's far too unsafe here."

"But I **really** have to **GO**!" Saya whispered loudly through her teeth trying to keep her voice low so Kouta wouldn't overhear.

Saeko sighed in frustration.

"All right." But there's no place around here other than near the water."

"Good enough." Rei replied, starting to shift from one foot to the other.

"What about Fatty?" Saya said looking at Kouta.

"What about Hirano-kun?" Saeko asked, annoyed at Saya's rudeness towards Kouta.

"I CAN'T GO IF HE'S RIGHT THERE!" Saya hissed in a shocked voice.

"Well what do you propose?" Rei said getting anxious. "And make it fast will you?"

"Send him down the road a bit so he can't see us." Saya said.

"That's not necessary." Saeko replied. "It's so dark, I can hardly see the water from here, and we need him to be on the lookout as well. Besides, I don't believe Hirano-kun would be the type to peep anyway."

"But he can still **hear** us!" Saya whined.

"OH, WHO CARES?!" Rei said out loud, the strain becoming too much to bear. "I'm going **now**."

"What's wrong everyone?" Kouta asked as Rei ran down the small slope away from the road into the darkness.

"SHUT UP!" Saya yelled as she ran after Rei. "And don't you look either you fat jerk!"

"Busujima-san? What's going on?" Kouta asked puzzled as he looked out into the darkness where the two girls had run.

"I SAID DON'T LOOK, YOU JERK!" Saya screeched.

"Just give them a moment of privacy, Hirano-kun." Saeko said quietly.

"**Oh**." Kouta replied, finally comprehending at last.

"BOOM!"

"BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!"

* * *

The sound of a shotgun blast roared into the night, startling everyone. The flash from the shot illuminating the darkness at the top of the hill for a brief moment, and was then immediately answered by the American opening up with his carbine.

As the flash from his weapon illuminated the hillside, Kouta and Saeko immediately hurled themselves to the ground on the small slope heading towards the water as the roar of the gunfire echoed out over the water while the other two girls started screaming behind them near the water's edge.

"STAY DOWN!" Kouta roared. As the gunfire finally ceased and the night became silent again.

"IS EVERYONE ALL RIG_!" Saeko began.

"BLAM!" "BLAM!"

Another double blast from the man's carbine echoed overhead as the two teens ducked their heads again.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Saya shrieked.

"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!" Kouta roared as he pulled down the legs of the bipod mounted on the front of the rifle and peered through the scope scanning the top of the hill.

"Do you see anything Hirano-kun?" Saeko asked after a moment had passed.

"Negative." Kouta replied as he peered into the darkness.

"But he came into contact with multiple targets, at least five or more perhaps."

"How can you tell?" Saeko replied.

"Men that are used to fighting in "Discretionary Warfare" usually double-tap their targets. That way you increase the chances of inflicting more damage and putting an enemy down for good." Kouta explained, his eye never leaving the scope.

"But I only heard one shot before he opened fire." Saeko said, looking up the hill as well.

"I know, which means he either opened fire before the rest could, or…. he's in trouble." Kouta said grimly.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Saeko said, suddenly anxious.

"No." Kouta responded firmly. "If he's in trouble, we can't help him now. We'd only put ourselves in_.

"BLAM!"

Rei and Saya screamed again as the report of a single shot echoed overhead.

"QUIET DOWN, DAMMIT!" Kouta roared his eye still glued to the scope.

"C'mon, give me a clean shot." Kouta said, quietly gritting his teeth as the crosshairs scanned the edge of the hill.

"Why was there only one shot?" Saeko asked.

"Coup de grace probably." Kouta replied grimly. "Someone must have still been moving."

"You don't think Jimu-san could be capable of_." Saeko began, horrified at the image of the American killing wounded men like that.

"BOOM!"

The flash and roar of a shotgun blast echoed again as a shirtless, bald-headed man came roaring out of the darkness walking backwards, and fired twice more into the night, causing Rei and Saya to scream in horror again.

"BOOM!" "BOOM!"

"Got you." Kouta said as he aligned the crosshairs on the man's tattooed back and placed his finger on the trigger.

"BLAM!" "BLAM!" "BLAM!"

Kouta watched as three quick flashes erupted out of the darkness and the man jerked as the bullets from the Americans carbine tore into him as he toppled over the edge, dropping the sawed-off shotgun as he fell, rolling down the hill.

"Jimu-san!" Saeko yelled as she attempted to get up but was stopped as Kouta grabbed her arm.

"Wait until he gives the all clear, sempai." Kouta said looking at her. "It may not be over yet."

Kouta could feel Saeko's arm tense as he held onto her, but she then relaxed and nodded her head in reply.

The tense moments that followed the last shot seemed to stretch on forever until a familiar voice called out to them.

* * *

"Everyone OK?" The sound of the American's voice yelled out of the darkness.

"Hai!" Saeko yelled. "Jimu-san, we're unhurt! Are **you** all right?!"

"Yup." The man replied. "But, all these fireworks are attracting an audience. Ya'll stay put, and I'll be down in a moment. Gotta go grab my stuff."

"All right!" Saeko replied as she and Kouta breathed a sigh of relief.

"Minna-san!" Saeko yelled. "Are you two allright?"

Saeko could not see the two girls in the darkness, but she could definitely hear the girls moving around and cursing.

"We're fine." Rei said angrily.

"What's wrong?" Saeko asked.

"It's not important." Saya responded, angry as well.

"Takagi-san!" Kouta yelled in alarm. "Have you been hurt?"

"NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS, FATTY!" Saya screeched.

"Are you sure you're both OK?" Saeko asked concerned. "Are you sure you haven't been wound_!"

"WE FELL INTO THE DAMN WATER WHEN THE SHOOTING STARTED, ALLRIGHT?!" The two girls screamed in anger and embarrassment.

Saeko turned her head as Kouta snickered and then he began to roll around on the ground roaring with laughter as the two girls came up from the river's edge soaking wet and started kicking Kouta mercilessly even though it only made him laugh even harder.

* * *

"What is **wrong** with those kids?" I thought as I donned my pack and headed towards them, the sound of the girls screaming in anger and Kouta laughing his head off echoing all around.

Just as I was nearing the edge of the hill, I took one last scan of the field behind me with my NOD and saw perhaps a couple hundred of the Infected beginning to surge in our direction in response to all the gunfire.

There was no sense trying to trail the kids from up here anymore. The entire field would be full of Infected before long and there would be no way for anyone to approach us from up here anyway. I figured I might as well walk with the kids from this point on as I headed their way as I could still hear Kouta laughing like a madman.

At their usual rate of speed, we would be well on our way, away from here before any of the Infected ever got to this point. But still, this was hardly the time to be screwing around.

"These kids must be pretty hard-core nowadays." I thought. "After experiencing something like this, I wouldn't be laughing and hollering. Wonder what's got the kids so worked up?

As I came down the hill, I stopped near the body of the bald-headed man where he lay. He was dead alright, with five bullet wounds in him. He had been a tough bastard though, I had to admit.

After finally getting into position behind and to the left of the group of men crouched in the darkness waiting to ambush the teens, I then crouched with my carbine at the ready just as they were about to charge the kids I guess, after I heard the bald fellow counting off all of a sudden.

"Good Evening" I said in Japanese to get their attention, and all of them froze at the sound of my voice, except for the leader.

"Don't even think about it." I said as he looked back towards the sound of my voice and then dove to the side letting off a shot from his sawed-off shotgun that went extremely wide as he dove to the ground.

And that's **exactly** the reason why I wasn't standing **directly** behind them.

* * *

I double-tapped him, and then proceeded to do the same to his buddies who decided the smartest thing to do at the moment was to charge me all at once, waving kitchen cutlery and an axe as they came at me.

It was over in seconds.

Well, not quite. One guy had only been wounded, and as I approached to make sure everyone was down for good, this fellow came up and swung a cleaver at me. I double-tapped him again and saw the bald fellow reaching for his shotgun again out of the corner of my eye.

I could see him plain as day with my NOD, and I could tell he was hoping I'd come closer so he could shoot me as soon as I got near enough in the light for him to see me. I wasn't falling for it though and fired a round into the ground near his head as he lay there.

"Don't even bother buddy, I know you're playing possum." I said as he finally jumped up and pumped three more rounds in my general direction as I dove to my left to avoid them.

I had barely made it out of the way as fast as the guy had moved and as he cycled the action of his shotgun for a fourth shot, I then fired three more rounds at him and finally put him down.

And now as I stood there next to him, I stared at him lying there on the ground wondering just what the hell was going through this guy's mind leading all those other men to try to commit such horrible savagery towards a bunch of innocent teenagers.

Like I said, some things people do, defy logic and there are some people I'll just never understand at all.

* * *

I shook my head and then quickly searched the man's body for ammo, and I found five more shells for the scattergun in his pockets.

I then reloaded the small sawed-off shotgun and shoved it into the rifle case attachment of my pack next to the other shotgun I had scavenged from the first guy. I'm sure they would come in handy later.

Now that the latest threat had been neutralized, and everyone was safe I began to think to myself that if a drone had indeed been flying overhead and the cameras **had**, caught that little drama unfolding on top of the hill, perhaps a training video would still be made for what **not** to do in combat.

Or more likely, the video would be used as the State's evidence against me before I faced a firing squad.

Either way, the kids were safe, I was still alive, and that's all that mattered as far as I was concerned.

After putting the sawed-off away, I walked over to the teens who were standing there waiting for me startling everyone but Saeko, at seeing me coming out of the dark with my face all camo'ed up looking like a green-faced monster stumbling out of the night.

And as I approached them I began to wonder why Saya and Rei both were all soaking wet from the waist down and why Kouta was all beaten up and dirty with dusty footprints all over his school uniform.

"Can't wait to hear their side of the story." I thought as I walked over to them.

* * *

"Do you think they're all right?" Shizuka asked Takashi as they waited out in the street next to an American-made Humvee parked across the street from the condominium where her friend Rika lived.

They had been waiting the better part of an hour, and were still anxiously awaiting the arrival of their friends. The normal nightly noises of traffic, children at play, and neighbors greeting and conversing with one another had been replaced with the sound of traffic, mixed with gunfire, and human screams.

Being alone out in the open was unsettling to say the least, Takashi thought as another scream pierced the night air from some unfortunate victim not too far away.

In the past hour, Takashi and Shizuka had quietly watched a few Infected shuffling by as they all headed in the direction of the sounds of frightened humanity trying to save themselves from the relentless horde pursuing them without pause or mercy.

Now, it seemed to Takashi, that the numbers of Infected coming down this particular street were on the increase, as he spotted another Infected housewife shuffling slowly towards them about 100 feet away.

So far, they had not needed to resort to defending themselves from any of the Infected yet. But if their friends didn't arrive soon, their primary source of shelter this night would have to be abandoned and they would have to travel to the secondary "safe house" that Shizuka had suggested.

"I'm sure they're fine Sensei." Takashi replied. "Jimu-san was going to extreme lengths to make sure everyone got here safe. I'm sure the reason they haven't shown up yet is because they're avoiding any encounter with "Them", the same as we are."

"I certainly hope so." Shizuka replied, her voice still very much filled with concern.

After another twenty minutes and three more Infected had passed, even Takashi could not help but be alarmed at the extended length of time that had passed since they had left the group.

"Komuro-kun? I think somethings happened." Shizuka replied looking at him.

Takashi gazed upon the nurse's frightened face and nodded his head in agreement.

"I think you're right, Sensei." He replied. "Let's go look for them."

"But Komuro-kun, Jimu said to go to the secondary "safe house." Shizuka said anxiously. "Won't they be looking for us there if they can't find us here?"

Takashi looked at his motorcycle as he pondered the nurse's words.

The American had made a simple plan of action that seemed to make sense at the time. But now that their friends were missing, the plan did not seem as important as trying to find out if their friends were all right.

There were too many dangers all around this night, and a horrible thought that had occurred to Takashi earlier was that perhaps one of the screams that they had heard, might be coming from one of their **friends**.

"I know what our plan was, Sensei." Takashi replied. "But the plan was, for all of us to meet here **first **and **if** they couldn't find us here, **then** they would go to the secondary house to find us."

"We're here, they're **not**." Takashi stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you want to do then?" Shizuka asked, staring down the street and seeing nothing but an old man shuffling down the street, surprisingly one of the few people shuffling around on the street that **wasn't** Infected for a change.

"Let's go back and see what happened to them." Takashi said as he climbed aboard the motorcycle and started the engine as Shizuka climbed aboard behind him.

Takashi was about to head out into the street as he suddenly shuddered as the nurse's hand came dangerously close to his crotch again, the same as when they had left the group earlier. It had been an awkward ride all the way up here, and Takashi was not all that anxious about having the older woman's hand on his groin all through the night.

Although there had been many young men in his school that would have gladly traded places with him if they had survived the Outbreak.

"Ano, Sensei?" Takashi said, starting to have that awkward feeling coming back to him.

"Hai?!" Shizuka responded loudly over the noise of the engine.

"Would you mind putting your hand somewhere else?" Takashi said, starting to sweat a little.

"I can't hear you!" Shizuka said. "The noise!"

"Never mind." Takashi said rolling his eyes as they took off out into the street headed back the way they came.

They rode to the end of the street and then quickly turned a corner when a dark figure suddenly seemed to appear in front of them as if coming out of the shadows and reaching out for them with both hands. Takashi gripped the brake and slid into the figure who then grabbed the handlebars.

Shizuka screamed as the figure loomed over them and Takashi reached for the pistol the American had given him.

The shadowy figure then released one of his hands off the handlebars of the bike and grabbed Takashi's hand preventing him from drawing the pistol as Takashi struggled to break free.

* * *

"WHOOOA!" The man yelled as Takashi recognized the voice of the man that had stumbled out of the night and grabbed them.

"JIMU-SAN?!" Takashi and Shizuka yelled out in surprise.

"TURN THAT DAMN BIKE OFF WILLYA?!" The American yelled, extremely annoyed at nearly being run over and then nearly shot, as he had been about to walk around the corner and had run right into the path of the bike.

"Are you all right? Where are the others?!" Shizuka blurted out as soon as Takashi had shut off the engine.

"Auuugh." The American groaned as he started to massage his left thigh where the motorcycle tire had struck him.

"The kids are fine. They're about a couple blocks behind me." The man said grumbling. "I came up here to scout ahead and make sure the two of you were here, and it was safe for the others to come up."

"And quite frankly, it's more dangerous out here with you **two **on the loose than anything else out here." The man said as he continued to rub his thigh.

"I'm sorry about that." Takashi replied.

"What part?" The man snapped. "Trying to **run** my ass over or trying to **blow **it away?"

"Uhm, yeah." Takashi said sheepishly. "I'm sorry; I thought you were one of THEM."

"Aw, forget it son." The American said trying to walk on his leg. "It's my fault that I was standing in the middle of the damn road anyway. I keep forgetting how narrow these streets really are. That, and how the flow of traffic around here is the opposite of what I'm used to."

"Are you hurt?" Shizuka asked, noticing the American was slightly limping.

"I'll be OK, considering I just got clobbered by two people on a motorbike, riding full speed down a dark alley." The man replied. "How's the house look?"

"Condo." Shizuka corrected him. "A few of the occupant's that live there have been Infected. But everything else seems OK."

"We can clear it out pretty quickly with everyone's help." Takashi added.

"Sounds good, great job guys." The man said, as he looked down the street and waved at the teens who had finally turned a corner, and were headed their way.

"Oh, thank goodness." Shizuka said as she saw the teens approaching, seemingly none the worse for wear.

"They're fine." The American said. "Although if you value your lives, I wouldn't make mention of why Rei and Saya are all wet when you see them."

"Something bad happen?" Takashi asked, mildly alarmed that Rei might have been injured.

"Nothing like that." The man snickered." Just a pit stop that went horribly wrong."

"What do you mean?" Shizuka asked.

The man suddenly lowered his head, his shoulders shaking as he covered his mouth to prevent himself from roaring with laughter. After a moment the man looked up and spoke again, albeit his voice was a little shaky.

"Let's just say, they're both madder than a couple of wet hens." The American said as he covered his mouth again and walked around the corner failing miserably at trying to keep his composure.

"I'm sorry." The man said, trying to avoid being seen by the teens that were nearly a block away now.

"I couldn't laugh or make any jokes about it till now; otherwise the girls would have killed me." The man said wiping the tears from his eyes. "And I already had one girl beating on me today already."

"JIMU-SAN!" Shizuka said alarmed after noticing something about the man after he stepped out into the light.

"What happened to your arms? You're bleeding!"

* * *

The man raised his arms and looked at them. There was indeed, blood on both of his arms, but no visible wounds.

Shizuka had already hopped off the bike and grabbed the man's arms, examining them for any wounds but could not find any.

"I don't see any wounds." Shizuka said.

"It's not my blood." The man said suddenly turning serious. "Had a little trouble after ya'll left."

"Not the gang again?" Takashi said alarmed. "They came back?"

"No." The man replied. "Different bunch altogether."

"Same motive though." The American sighed.

"We really need to get everyone under cover as soon as possible and fort up for the night. Seems like people around here have **really** gone off the deep end with all this stuff going on. And people aren't holding **anything** back anymore it seems, ae really need to stay as invisible as possible"

"Is that why you're wearing make-up?" Shizuka asked, curious about the green color of the man's face.

"It's **not** make-up." The man growled. "It's camouflage."

"Looks like make-up to me." Shizuka said pouting at the man's gruff tone.

The American wiped his hand on his face and pressed his hand towards the nurse's face.

"Wanna try some then?" The man said as Shizuka backed away. "Although I doubt it's really your shade."

"Yuck!" The nurse said cringing at the greasy paint. "I'll **never** wear that stuff."

"Never say never, Sensei." The American chuckled. "Before all this is over, you might find yourself covered in this stuff."

"I don't think so!" Shizuka said annoyed.

Takashi laughed at the American teasing the nurse, until the man reached over and quickly smeared some of the camo paint on the end of Takashi's nose.

"What are **you** laughing at junior?" The man chuckled as Takashi grimaced at the dark green paint on his nose and tried to wipe it off and only succeeded in smearing it even further on his face as Shizuka and the man laughed at his efforts to wipe it off.

Takashi was driving himself crazy trying to wipe the greasy paint off as the rest of the teens finally walked up and joined them.

* * *

After a few moments spent greeting one another happily, the group quietly walked down the long road until they came upon the place that Shizuka pointed out as their final destination.

"Nice rig." The American said, admiring the Humvee parked out in the street after everyone had gathered around it, taking a short break before making their attempt to enter the apartment complex.

"Be a lot nicer if it had a .50 cal mounted on it though." I thought.

"What does your friend do for a living again?" I asked Shizuka.

"She's a police officer." Shizuka replied. "She works out at the airport sometimes, and I watch her place while she's gone."

"Oh." I said casually, in response to her answer.

"Oh, **crap**." Is what went through my mind actually.

"Is she there now?" I asked, pretending to view the interior of the Humvee.

"Yes." Shizuka replied. "Why?"

"Oh, no particular reason." I lied.

* * *

I didn't have the heart to tell Shizuka about what I had seen at the airport. And now, I can only imagine what was going on over there right now.

After we had bugged out and flown over the hangar trying to flee that small island of death, I had seen dozens of Infected swarming all over the place.

And after we left, I knew the first people to arrive on scene and investigate would be the airport police, and after the problems we had trying to make contact with the tower, I knew that the police on the ground had no clue what it was they would be running into when they arrived.

And without knowing what it was exactly that they were dealing with, I was pretty sure that it must have been a massacre.

And with the police force under attack and possibly decimated, I imagined the entire airport had been overrun, and I was having my doubts that her friend had made it.

So I kept my mouth shut, and said nothing. We'd had a rough time enough as it was today. And the last thing we needed was Shizuka getting all worked up over her friend. Maybe the police at the airport **had **been able to comprehend the horror they were facing, and were able to do something about the threat before it really did get out of hand.

Maybe.

No sense causing any unnecessary anxiety over it right now. There wasn't anything we could do about it anyway.

* * *

"Well guys, ya'll ready?" I said gazing at the small, exhausted bunch of teens looking up at me as I pulled the half-full magazine out of my Mk18 and switched it out with a full one and shoved it in the magwell.

"Yeah." Takashi replied hefting his bat as he looked up at our targeted "safe house" above us.

We were all extremely tired and mentally and emotionally fried, but still, we were more than ready to get off these streets as we gathered our things, and prepared ourselves for the fight ahead.

"Same way we did it before, back at your school, OK?" I said, looking into all of their faces. "The only difference is, I'll be in front with Kouta. If we come across any Infected that are bunched together, Kouta and I will thin them out. No need for a melee situation."

"We've been through **way** too much today to end up getting killed right at the front doorstep just because we were in too much of a hurry and screwed up. So wait till I give you the go ahead before you move up and take out any stragglers, understood?"

"Hai." They all answered, nodding their heads.

"The easy part will be clearing the grounds. The hard part will be clearing each room in this place. For that, only Kouta and I will be the ones to go inside each room and make sure they're clear, while all of you stand guard outside."

"Why clear all of the rooms?" Shizuka asked, puzzled. "Why not just lock ourselves inside Rika's condo?"

"Because we don't know how long we will need to stay here Sensei." Saya answered.

"And we can't afford to let any **one **of those bastards in here."

"Well said, pumpkin." The American said, patting Saya on the head.

"It'll take some time, but it'll be worth it." I said looking up at the condo and pondering the task at hand. "You can then walk around freely afterwards and sleep without having to look over your shoulder."

"Kouta, hand me my rifle." I said looking at him.

Kouta looked at me dismayed, but handed my M24 over as I leaned it against the Humvee.

"Can't I use it to help you clear the complex?" He asked, looking at me like a little kid whose most favorite toy in the world had just been taken away from him.

"It's no good for CQB." I said looking at him with a stern face at first and then grinning at the little surprise I had for him. "Can you handle a shotgun?"

"CQB?" Shizuka asked curious.

"Close Quarters Battle." Kouta replied, grinning evilly after seeing me reach behind my head and pull out the shotgun the office worker was carrying from my pack.

"Remington 870 Express Tactical pump action shotgun in 12ga. with a 7-shot capacity." Kouta said practically drooling as I passed it to him, the M24 now long forgotten after getting this new "toy."

"Thought you'd like that." I chuckled after seeing how excited he was to be holding the thing, as I had Saeko shove my rifle back into my pack while I stooped over.

"Here are a few extra shells." I said as I passed him a handful of 12 gauge shotgun shells. "Just be careful where you aim that thing. The last thing we need is someone to get wounded this late in the game."

"Yes SIR!" Kouta replied as he looked at me, understanding the huge amount of trust and responsibility I was placing on him.

"Here's your gun back." Takashi said holding the HK P7 still in its holster out to me.

"Sure you don't want to hang on to it, son?" I replied looking at him. "Might get a little hairy in there."

"I would rather use my bat for now. But I would appreciate it if you would teach me how to shoot later." Takashi said smiling.

"All right, son.' I said taking the pistol from him and stuffing it in the left cargo pocket on my trousers. Just don't get too carried away swinging that thing and get yourself in trouble, all right?"

"Hai." Takashi replied.

"Oh, and Takashi? I said looking at him.

"Hai?"

"This time, you yell as loud as you want, little buddy." I said, patting him on the shoulder, as he laughed.

* * *

"Everyone ready?" I said shouldering my carbine.

A chorus of "Hai's!" sounded, as we all walked towards the gate.

I flipped the "NV" switch on my Eotech from night mode to normal "red", and then turned on my weaponlight and laser, as I positioned myself in front of the gate with Kouta coming up next to me on my right side as everyone else got behind us.

"Shizuka, Pumpkin? Get the gate." I said as everyone readied themselves behind us while Shizuka grabbed one of the doors and Saya got the other.

"Open on the count of **three**, and then fall back behind the others." I said as I raised my carbine and I heard Kouta rack a shell in the chamber of his shotgun.

"One, two, THREE!" I yelled as the two women flung open the doors of the front gate revealing about a half dozen Infected on the steps leading up to the apartment complex. They then quickly ran behind the others as Kouta and I stepped forward.

"Kouta." I said smiling to myself as the Infected turned toward us at the sound of the gates opening.

"Hai?" Kouta asked looking straight ahead at the threat before us.

It had been a long day, and we were all exhausted and pretty keyed up and really needed to get under cover as quickly as possible.

But at that moment, I thought to myself. "Why not let the kid's burn off a little steam?"

Besides, I can't have** all** the fun **all** the time.

"Clear a path, son." I told Kouta as he looked at me and grinned.

"Yes, SIR!" He yelled, as he lined up his sights on his shotgun and opened fire.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Hi!

Well, I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter.

And YAY! Saeko and Jim didn't get emotional in this one!

To write this particular chapter, I used "Lord of War's" suggested soundtrack "Charging Fort Wagner" from the movie"Glory,"as Jim charges forward to intercept the "bad guys.". Thanks buddy!

For the part that Jim is stalking the "bad guys" I listened to Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight." Really set the mood for me there as I was writing it.

As always I wish to thank those who have offered reviews for my story whether the review was good or bad.

I appreciate the things that all of you have said, and it's really encouraged me to keep trying harder to write a good story.

That being said, I received a review recently which I wish to address because it really did concern me.

First, I do apologize for the goof I have made when it comes to capitalizing certain words in my story. "Last Alarm" is my first and only fanfic, and before I ever put this story together, the only time I've ever used a computer was for paying bills, surfing and Ebay.

I'm afraid I'm really very much a dinosaur when it comes to using a computer, and was not aware of certain things that I needed to be aware of when writing out a story electronically,so I apologize for "blasting" peoples ears figuratively with my capitalizing certain words in my story.

The idea was not to have the characters screaming like idiots, but rather to show emphasis and yes, also sometimes to shout out loud, especially when Saya is screaming at Kouta, but not all the time as much as it appears to be in my story.

That was my goof and I apologize. I only wish that I had known it earlier, because now I shudder to think of all the editing I have to do now to make it right.

Ah well,

But the reviewer brought out a good point and I'll do my best to fix it.

But as far as how I write this story, I can only say this, and this is meant with respect. Not everyone is going to like "Last Alarm", which is a given. So while I hope most of you **do** like it, I realize some of you **won't**.

I don't expect good reviews all the time.

I'll do the best I can to make the story good, but the story ain't perfect and neither is the writer.

But it is my story to write however I wish, whether some people think that it by itself, or just some parts of it, are "crap" or not.

"Crossroads" was meant to be emotional, and it most certainly was. And it accomplished what I wanted during a particularly trying ordeal for the cast.

A strong bond was forged between the HOTD cast and my character Jim.

An even stronger bond was forged between Jim and Saeko.

Maybe I could have "sprinkled" the emotion between chapters as the story progresses to keep a certain "pace" going.

But who wants to listen to Jim and Saeko get emotional every other chapter?

Not even I do, and I'm the one writing the story.

"Crossroads" accomplished its purpose as far as I'm concerned.

But it's only part of the story, and not the whole thing and definitely **NOT** the theme of the whole story.

As Forrest Gump would say,..."That's all ah have to say bout that."

LOL.

Cya'll next time!


	20. Chapter 19- And Then There Was Alice 1

Last Alarm

Chapter Nineteen

"And Then There Was Alice." Part One

* * *

As it turns out, clearing the grounds of the apartment complex really had turned out to be the easiest part, and it was mostly due to the small amount of actual landscaping on the property. Real estate in Japan is at a premium if you live in a large city such as Tokonosu. And this particular neighborhood was about as hemmed in as could be just like most residential areas are that are situated near the sea.

The apartment complex that Shizuka's friend resided was a relatively small complex as far as most condos go. In all, there were only about eight units total on the whole property. And the actual grounds that surrounded it were not very large at all. There was also hardly anything in the way of actual landscaping here either other than a large tree.

The rear of the complex was mostly one large parking lot for all of the residents to use, so we had a clear line of sight all around the complex without having to search through a lot of nooks and crannies or around multiple trees or shrubbery looking for an Infected person that might be concealed from our view.

Nor were there any obstructions that would block our line of fire in case we needed to engage any of the Infected, or someone that was "hostile", which was starting to be more a problem for us lately.

Unfortunately for us, our only means of transportation, the Humvee, was just too large to be driven up the small driveway that was on the side of the complex that lead up to the rear parking lot. This could be a real problem for us strategically, because we couldn't just jump in the Humvee and take off if we really needed to evacuate the condominiums in a hurry.

The way things stood right now, we would have to park the Humvee very close to the fence line and drop down from the fence to the roof of the Humvee and then go through the roof hatch, if things really hit the fan and we needed to leave in a hurry. It was awkward and unsafe, but there really were no other vehicles suitable enough for all seven of us to use.

I really would have loved to have had the vehicle parked a lot closer to us **inside** the fence line were we could get on board with ease.

Although, with the ramp being the only way in or out, even if we could have fit the Humvee through it, it would still have been difficult for us to bug out of here in a hurry with only one exit available to us. And it would have been impossible to leave that way if it became overly congested by a horde of Infected blocking the way out.

Still, the advantage we had thus far with the way the complex was constructed was that it was extremely easy for us to clear the grounds and thus make it possible for us to have some sort of secure place to spend the night.

Besides the six Infected we came across on the steps near the entrance, there were only about four more shuffling around on the grounds itself, and pretty soon we were done mopping up the exterior of the complex without breaking too much of a sweat.

And after we had taken out all of the Infected on the exterior of the apartment complex, I then had Shizuka open up the door to her friend's condo. After which, Kouta and I then cleared the interior of the condo while everyone remained outside until we made sure it was secure.

The condo that we would be staying in was rather large actually, and it took a little longer for Kouta and I to clear it than I thought it would before I was convinced that it was safe enough to let the rest of the group come inside.

It was a pretty impressive condo for a person living on a police officer's salary I thought to myself as I admired its spacious interior. I was beginning to think maybe I should have been a cop in Japan to be able to live like this, as the rest of the group came in and locked the door behind them.

* * *

After making sure everyone was inside and safe, I doffed my pack in the living room along with everybody else's stuff, and gave instructions to everyone on our next plan of action. Then, after making sure that Shizuka, Rei, and Saya would be safe while we were away clearing out the other condos, I then went upstairs followed by Kouta, Saeko, and Takashi as we went up to the second floor landing.

We then went through the difficult task of climbing into each of the adjoining condos and clearing each and every one of them systematically. "Difficult," because we were making our entry to each condo from the **second** floor on each unit.

This was a little tough because each outside balcony of every individual condo was separated from each other and in order to access each balcony, we had to climb over the railing and on top of an overhang to get through to the other side as we attempted to enter each condo.

"Why don't we make entry on the first floor instead?" Kouta had asked earlier, puzzled that we weren't making our entry on the ground floor, instead of climbing along the second floor landings.

Personally, I think he was just more than a little disappointed that we weren't going to make a spectacular dynamic entry the way the Spec Ops and SWAT Teams do by blasting the door open with the shotgun aimed at the lock and the hinges and then kicking the door in and start shooting at anything that moved within.

That, and I think he just hated all the extra exercise he was forced to do.

* * *

The real truth was, the main reason I chose to make entry from the second story versus the bottom was to preserve the integrity of the locked security doors downstairs by not busting them down, or breaking any of the windows downstairs so that we could all stay in the condos without compromising the security of each room by keeping the doors and windows intact.

It's extremely counter-productive to breach a door, thus making it useless, and then be left with no way to secure the main entrance into the place you've taken shelter in if you have no way to secure the entryway afterwards. This was one of the main reasons why I was being careful to try to keep from smashing everything as we went.

Blocking an open doorway with a sofa or coffee table because we had just trashed the door was just not going to work for us in case we did become trapped by a bunch of Infected that had managed to get through the gates and were now trying to get at us. There would have been no way to keep them out with the doors weakened or trashed completely.

Of course, we could have just broken a window and then crawled through it and used something to block the window we had broken. We could have then unlocked the doors from the inside and so on and so forth.

But the problem was that the windows and glass all around the ground floor was thicker than most glass panes you see in homes back in the United States. And since they were so thick, I wanted to avoid shattering them too, to help maintain the security of each condo.

As thick as they were though, they wouldn't stop a horde of Infected determined to come in. But they would hold off a few of them pounding on the glass and give us enough time to head for the second floor in case of a breach.

And the sound of breaking glass in the middle of the night is a perfect way to tell if someone is trying to get in that's not supposed to.

You see, there was a method behind my madness.

* * *

Although the kids just couldn't see it, because once we got to the top floor, I had to stop Takashi from swinging his bat and shattering the glass on the sliding doors before I could demonstrate to all of them another of my reasons for going through all this trouble.

I swear, kids just love to smash things, don't they?

"Always try before you pry." I lectured the teens as I swung the **unlocked** sliding door open on the apartment next to the one we were staying. Takashi turned beet-red with embarrassment at seeing the ease at which I had opened the door, but in reality, he wasn't the only one ever to make that mistake.

One of the things that is taught at the Fire Academy, and something we always try to train newbies is the old adage "Try before you pry."

There's nothing more embarrassing than smashing a door, wall, or window to smithereens in a residence trying to make entry into a house on fire or for whatever reason your trying to get in the house and then the resident suddenly comes running up screaming bloody murder at you because the front door was unlocked in the first place.

Seeing as how secure this complex was though, I figured that the other residents might not be too worried about locking the sliding doors on their balconies, and my hunch had been proven correct for six of the eight units we had gained access to.

Most people, whether it's because of complacency, or a false sense of security, will often times leave the sliding doors on their second floor balcony unlocked, and thieves knowing this will just shimmy up to the second floor balcony and let themselves in. No fuss, no muss. No trade secret there, as anyone who lives in an apartment complex will tell you.

The other two condos we went to that **were** locked, were still easy for me to open up once I displaced the sliding doors off their track and pulled them free. After all was said and done, there was no breaking of glass or any doors shot up in pieces which was perfect in my opinion, but very anti-climactic for Kouta.

Surprisingly enough, no burglar alarms went off as we broke into any of the condos, and when we made our search of each of them, there were only about two people that we found at home and both of them were Infected, so we dispatched them quickly and walked out the front door of each condo as easy as you please.

All in all, clearing out the other units turned out to be much easier than I thought, although it still took a lot of time checking every room, both upstairs as well as downstairs, as well as every closet, and underneath every bed.

After we were done clearing out all the condos, we then had the unpleasant task of policing the bodies and laying them out in the back of the parking lot. There was no real ground large enough available to bury all of them and we were too exhausted to even try anyway, and so we let it go for now. There was still too much to be done before we could rest anyway. However, I knew something would need to be done about the bodies soon.

One of the things that usually follows a major disaster is the inevitable spread of diseases that plague the area from all the corpses that eventually rot outdoors after days of being left exposed to the elements without being buried.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levies were breached from the storm surge and drowned scores of residents living near the levies, many of their bodies were unfortunately unable to be retrieved for quite some time and diseases begin to spread from the corpses that rotted before they could be recovered and buried.

I couldn't even imagine how bad it was going to be worldwide once the plagues started spreading uncontrolled if the governments didn't get this Outbreak under control soon.

After the bodies were dragged to the farthest corner of the complex, I did a quick once-over sweep of the grounds and secured the main gate at the front as well as the rear of the complex. And then finally, we all returned to the condo where the rest of the group were and took a moment to catch our breath.

The complex was finally secure and we were more than ready, for a badly needed break.

* * *

Well, it was as secure as it could be anyways. It was nowhere near the ideal fortification I wished that it could be, but it was better than being out in the street or holing up in some rickety shed somewhere.

The complex was built very securely, and surrounded with iron gates all around. We also had food, water, power, and a lot of other creature comforts on hand than most people could only wish they had right now. But still, from a tactical standpoint, it was a far cry from being absolutely safe.

Even the Alamo looked like a pretty decent place for a small group of Texans to fort up back in 1836 when they were surrounded by thousands of enemies outside the gates, and we all know how horribly that ended up.

And since I'm originally from San Antonio and was raised on the stories of the Battle of the Alamo, I know the uglier details of how that battle ended for the Texans that they **don't **tell you about in the history books.

I saw no sense in troubling the kids with my worries though. We really were a lot better off than most people right now, and so I kept my mouth shut and let the kids relax for now as they literally tore into the food that Shizuka and the other girls had been quickly preparing for everybody while we were out clearing the other units in the complex.

We hadn't had anything to eat since the protein bars I had given everyone for breakfast this morning back on the bus, and we were all **starving**. I had rationed my own bar one bite at a time, and had made it last all day, but as I saw the spread before me, I wanted so badly to tear into one of those hastily-made sandwiches just as ravenously as the kids did.

Watching them wolf down the food the way they did made me laugh. Table manners went out the window once they stepped up to the kitchenette and began eating like a pack of wolves on a fresh kill.

I always did get a kick out of all those movies and anime's where someone is calmly cooking a meal for everybody after no one has eaten for an entire day while everyone else calmly walks around making polite conversation as the food slowly cooks on the stove.

Yeah right, like anyone's gonna really just sit there and wait for a meal to be cooked after not eating all day, instead of just ravaging through the fridge and cupboards and eating everything in sight.

It had been almost eighteen hours since their last meal which was the protein bar, and I'm surprised the kids weren't gnawing on the frozen steaks that Shizuka had laid out on the sink to defrost.

Obviously, the screenwriters of those motion pictures forgot what it's like to be a growing teenager because even Saya was stuffing her face faster than Kouta . And even Rei, Takashi, and Saeko had mayonnaise and mustard smeared all over their faces as they ate.

And boy, Shizuka could really put away some groceries too, let me tell you.

* * *

But before I could help myself to a sandwich hopefully without getting my hand bitten off by Mama wolf and her pack of ravenous cubs gorging themselves in the kitchenette, I seriously wanted to wash the blood off of my arms, and also scrub the camo paint off my face as well, before I ate anything.

My reasons for wanting to wash the blood off my arms goes without saying, but I was also concerned about the psychological effect my camo'ed face as well as the blood on my arms would have on the civilians in my care.

There's nothing like trying to eat a meal no matter how much you're starving, and then try to enjoy it and not freak out a bit while you're sitting next to the Jolly Green Giant who has blood dripping down his arms without wanting to upchuck everything you just ate. So I grabbed a juice box out of the fridge and chugged it down as I headed for the bathroom to clean up.

"Jimu-san? Where are you going?" Shizuka asked, curious as to why the American wasn't eating any of the sandwiches she and the other girls had hastily prepared.

"Surely he must be hungry as well." Shizuka thought.

"I'm just gonna wash up first, Sensei. I'll be right back." The man replied, entering the bathroom and shutting the door behind him.

"Saeko-chan, is he all right?" Shizuka asked the teen as Saeko was busy trying to swallow a large bite of her ham sandwich.

"As far as I know, Sensei. Why?" Saeko asked, puzzled at the nurse's concern.

"He's been awfully quiet since all of you came back, I've noticed." Shizuka said frowning. "All he said to us when we met him outside in the street was that all of you had run into some trouble while coming over here."

"By the way, what **did** happen out there?" Shizuka asked, a worried look on her face.

"Some men tried to jump us a mile away from here." Kouta replied. "Jimu-san said they were trying to set up an ambush for us when we walked by, and he stopped them before they could attack us."

"Is that all he said?" Takashi asked, curious as to what had happened to the group as well. The American had only mentioned that they had run into trouble, but had offered no further details. And once everyone else had arrived safely, Takashi hadn't thought to press the issue until now.

"He didn't say how many there were trying to attack you, or why they were trying to harm you, or anything at all?"

"No, that's all he told us." Rei replied. "We did see one of the men shooting at him as we,…." Rei hesitated a moment as she cast a quick glance at Saya before continuing.

"As we were hiding by the side of the road after the gunfire started. But we never saw the other men that he shot."

"You actually saw Jimu-san shooting at one of them? What happened?" Takashi asked, intensely curious now.

"Well, the man with the shotgun shot at him and missed, and then he fired two more times with his shotgun and missed him again. And then Jimu-san finally shot him. Why do you ask?" Saya asked puzzled, after taking an enormous bite of her sandwich, both of her cheeks swollen like a chipmunk's as she chewed.

"Because I saw that he had blood all over his arms." Shizuka replied, her brow furrowed with worry. "And I didn't see any wounds on him either."

"And if he was shooting his rifle, there would be no reason for blood to be on his arms." Takashi added, looking at everyone. "And that's what has me so curious as to what happened to all of you out there."

"That is true, he wouldn't have any blood on his arms if he was just shooting, unless he stopped to search the bodies afterwards." Kouta replied. "Or,…he said out loud at first, and then let his voice trail off.

"Or, what?" Takashi asked.

"Or, since he was by himself, he may have had to take out someone silently like a straggler or a sentry that was standing away from the rest of the other men, so as not to alert the others." Kouta replied.

"What do you mean, take him out silently?" Takashi asked, still confused.

"It means he had to kill someone hand-to-hand Komuro-kun." Saeko replied. "Probably by slitting someone's throat or breaking his neck, before Jimu-san could move in to position to engage the rest of the attackers."

"How awful!" Shizuka gasped. "Do you honestly believe he could really have done that? He doesn't seem the type to be so brutal."

"He **is** a mercenary Sensei." Saya replied. "I'm sure he was trained to be able to do that in combat."

"Yes, I suppose so, but still." Shizuka said, casting her eyes down.

"He probably had no choice, Sensei." Kouta replied. "All alone up there on the hill by himself in the dark. If that really is the reason why he had blood on his arms, I'm sure it was because it was a last resort situation for him."

"I thought about that after it was all over and he went off and walked ahead of us without giving out any details." Saeko said suddenly, looking down at her plate. "And even though he tried to stay in the shadows, I also saw the blood on his arms, and I had a feeling he was hiding something from us."

"He was probably afraid you were going to slap him again." Saya replied as Saeko smiled in response to her comment.

"Saeko-chan. Please don't be mad at him." Shizuka said, worried about a repeat of the horrible scene earlier. "I'm sure he didn't mean to break his promise to you to not take any more unnecessary risks."

"Do not worry, Sensei. I'm not going to lose control like earlier." Saeko replied, still staring at her plate. "And as far as breaking his promise is concerned, I know he was only trying to keep me from being afraid when he made that promise to me. I really didn't expect him to keep it, even though I really hoped he would. I don't know why I even made him promise that. He even said it himself, he's a mercenary, and it's his job to fight even though we all know he's not being paid for keeping us safe."

"And in truth, it really isn't my place to tell him anything, anyway." Saeko said, smiling slightly.

"But I can't help it." Saeko continued. "I'm worried he's going to get himself killed taking all these risks for us. And I know, I really shouldn't be worried by anything he does, but I am." Saeko said looking at Shizuka. "And I feel so silly as well, worrying about a man who's not even related to me."

"It's not silly at all." Shizuka replied, smiling. "I feel the same way. That's why I was worried when I saw the blood on his arms."

"She's right, it's not silly." Saya said looking at her. "Even though he's kind of a grumpy old guy, he kind of grows on you, you know?"

"Yeah, he doesn't act like most adults do." Rei agreed.

"Actually, he acts a little goofier than most." Takashi said chuckling.

"I'm still going to kill him later." Saeko replied, as she and everyone began to laugh.

* * *

"What's up, guys?" The American said, interrupting them as he stepped out of the bathroom, absent-mindedly wiping his hands and face with one of Rika's best towels, to Shizuka's horror.

The man had managed to wipe away most of the camouflage paint off his face, neck, and ears but there was still a bit of it smeared here and there. However, the towel itself was soaked through with the face paint and completely ruined, much to Shizuka's dismay.

The American looked upon the visibly pained expressions of all of the women in the room staring at him and froze in fear.

"What?" He asked, completely clueless as to the women's shocked reaction as he had walked into the room.

Some men will just never understand why some women, especially their wives or girlfriends, will get all upset at them when they wipe their dirty hands on their best towels after working out in the yard or on the car.

Nor will they understand why other women become so sympathetic to another woman whose property has just been ruined by a thoughtless man, and will thus gang up on him as well.

"See what I mean?" Takashi snickered as the women looked on in horror.

"Yup." Kouta said laughing.

"Uh-oh, this can't be good." The man said trying to make a joke to relieve the tension in the room, still not comprehending why everyone was staring at him as he tossed the ruined towel in the kitchen sink as Shizuka did a silent scream.

Moving quickly, he then walked past their scowling faces, until he knelt down over his pack that was lying in the middle of the living room floor.

He then unzipped several compartments in it, and then rummaging around inside the pack for a few moments he began pulling out several folding knives from it and then stood and walked back towards the group and began passing out a knife to each one of the four women.

* * *

"I don't know what's going on, and maybe I'm gonna regret handing you women these weapons for you to use, but here you are." The American said as he passed out each one.

"These knives I'm giving you are called the "M21" knife made by a company called CRKT." The man explained. "They were designed for utility and fighting use, and so from now on, I want each of you to carry this knife with you wherever you go, whether it's to the toilet, the shower, or even to bed, understand?"

As all of the women nodded their heads, he then demonstrated to them how to open and close the knife as each of the women followed his instructions and practiced opening and folding the rather large, folding knife he had given them.

"Keep this knife hidden on your person always, and also make sure that no one else can see that you have it. But I also want you to keep it somewhere where you can get to it quickly, okay?" The American instructed. "I mean it. Keep this knife with you at all times, because your life may depend on it, understand?"

"We will. But why are you giving them to us?" Shizuka asked.

"Because people everywhere are doing things that none of us would have thought possible and I don't want you walking around unarmed and unable to defend yourselves, no matter what. "The American said with a sigh. "These knives are not very big for you to use as a weapon, but they're better than nothing at all."

"My goodness, why do you have so many knives with you anyway?" Shizuka asked looking at the large knife the man had just given her.

"I had read an article in a magazine years ago, by (Ret.) Lt. Commander Mike Walsh in SEAL Team Four who stated that knives are specialty items, and that he always carried at least five on every mission he went to." The American explained. " It made sense to me, and because they can also be lost fairly easily in the field, I always carry a few extras."

"I knew it, he's a SEAL." Kouta whispered to Takashi.

"Will you please, STOP THAT?!" The American chided Kouta as everyone laughed. "I told you I'm a PMC."

The man shook his head and then gazed upon the group once more.

* * *

"All right everyone listen close, from this point on I don't want any of you going anywhere alone, or going anywhere unarmed either, are we clear?" The man said, casting a nasty look at Kouta who had just whispered something unintelligible.

"That goes for you too, guys." The man said, still eyeing Kouta.

Wide-eyed, everyone nodded their heads in understanding as the man then grabbed a sandwich and walked away from them over to his pack and then lifting it, slung it over his shoulder and began to head for the door.

"Jimu-san, where are you going?" Saeko asked puzzled at the man's odd behavior. "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all sweetie, I'm just gonna head over to the condo next door and clean up my gear and grab a shower and then rack out. It's been a long day, and I'm anxious to wash all of this mud off of me."

"But you just said for all of us not to go anywhere alone." Saeko said with a frown. "Why are you going alone, if we can't?

"I'm not alone sweetie." The man said raising his carbine in the air and smiling. "I have my "little friend" with me. Don't worry about me, and make sure you lock the door when I leave."

"Boys." The man continued. "When I go into the room next door, I'm going to lock the door behind me. If you want to come in, use the extra key we found. And when you do come over, come together, and come armed."

Saeko frowned even deeper, but said nothing as Shizuka placed her hand on Saeko's arm.

"Why not just use the shower here?" Shizuka asked. "We don't mind waiting till you're done."

"Naw, that's OK." The man replied walking towards the door slowly. "I think I'll spare you the image of seeing my wrinkly old butt trying to shower over here on this side. Besides, some of you need to clean up as soon as possible too. Ya'll are getting kind of ripe." The American laughed as he quickly ran towards the door as a hail of empty juice boxes were hurled at him.

* * *

"He's being unusually distant for some reason." Saeko thought as she watched the man leave and Saya locked the door behind him. "Something did happen a while ago, and he's trying really hard to keep it to himself."

"You know, he has a point." Rei said aloud, distracting Saeko from her thoughts. "I think a shower and a change of clothes really does sound like a good idea right now."

"Yeah, we should really clean up before they shut off the water and electricity." Saya agreed, finishing her sandwich. "I'm surprised with everything going on that all the utilities are still working."

"But they might not be for long." Takashi added nodding his head. "Takagi-san's right, we'd better take advantage of having water and electricity while we still can. You can all clean up if you'd like, Hirano and I will stand guard upstairs."

"Well, in that case, come along everyone, we can conserve water if we all go at the same time." Shizuka said as she led the way to the bathroom.

"TOGETHER?!" Saya protested as Rei pushed her along. "But that's so embarrassing!"

"Oh come on, you big baby." Rei chided her. "No one cares how you look."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? WHAT'S WRONG WITH HOW I LOOK?!" Saya protested as Rei shoved her through the door.

"Let's go Hirano." Takashi said as he headed for the stairs.

Halfway up the stairs, Takashi looked back to see that his friend had not yet joined him in his climb up the steps but instead, was still downstairs looking at the door that the women had disappeared behind.

"KOUTA!" Takashi hissed. "What are you doing?"

Kouta looked up at him and grinned mischievously. " Komuro, we can't **possibly** pass up this opportunity, man!"

"YOU BETTER NOT BE OUT THERE TRYING TO PEEP, YOU FAT OTAKU!" Saya screamed through the door. "I'LL STAB YOU WITH THIS KNIFE, I SWEAR!"

Kouta gulped and then quickly started to climb the stairs after Takashi, his desire to peep doused like a bucket of cold water being thrown over him by Saya's threat.

* * *

After I had exited the condo where the kids were, I then entered the adjoining one through the front door. But I still kept my guard up, as if the grounds had been penetrated and someone was lying in the dark trying to catch me unawares. It may have sounded like paranoia was overcoming me. But right now, it was a very real fear.

The reason I was being so vigilant was that I was now very worried about non-Infected people slipping into the complex and trying to harm the kids either because they wanted to steal our source of shelter, or any of our food, our belongings, or our weapons.

But what was really worrying me, especially after the two incidences today, was the very real possibility of some sick bunch of psychos trying to get at the women.

This was the main reason for my taking the precaution of giving the women the knives to defend themselves with, as well as telling everyone to only go outside in pairs.

As tired as I was, I couldn't afford to let my guard down too much, and I had decided that after I cleaned my gear, weapons and myself, that I would then come back and stand guard on the top floor of the women's condo as soon as everyone went to sleep.

For now, I still had too much to do before I could take a real breather. I still had to clean all my weapons and ammo magazines that had all been immersed in the polluted river after my involuntary little swim after I had jumped off the bridge.

Water doesn't necessarily cause harm or damage to weapons and ammo, especially military grade ammo, but the silt from the river bottom that was stirred up as I was being dragged along the river bottom by the current might have settled in some key places inside my weapons and could possibly jam the internals.

And that same silt might cause the magazines for my weapons to not feed properly as well. So basically, I had a big job ahead of me if I wanted my weapons to work properly when I needed them.

Fortunately, most of the things I had in my pack were sealed in waterproof plastic bags, so most of my gear and my clothes were still nice and dry. A lesson I had learned from reading all those books about the Teams.

I first removed everything from my pack as well as everything from my combat vest and rinsed the outside of all the plastic bags. I then washed out the pack and my vest and then stuffed them in the dryer. Mold and mildew can ruin gear, not to mention the strong smell of it in an urban environment can give you away too.

Using a dryer is not necessarily a good idea either because the anti-wrinkling cloths people use in the dryer to keep clothes from wrinkling has a strong scent that has a tendency to rub off on other loads of clothes even if another cloth is not used in that particular load.

The problem of using a dryer to dry gear used in combat is that the perfume from those cloths can adhere to your stuff and the scent will give you away if you're in the middle of a jungle or a desert and your gear smells like strawberries.

Still, I needed my stuff back in service really quick, so I put my wet things in the dryer and hoped for the best. We were after all in a metropolitan city and not the African bush, so I figured the extremely faint scent of strawberry smelling gear in the city wouldn't hurt me that much tactically, anyway.

I then began the long process of tearing apart my weapons and magazines and cleaning them, each and every part, a process that lasted well over a couple of hours.

As I began taking my weapons apart, I could hear the sounds of the women bathing through the wall. For some reason, they were being extremely loud and it really sounded like there was a slumber party going on next to me as I tried to focus on the task at hand.

I'm sure it would have been very interesting to see what was going on over there, but contrary to popular belief, not all men over the age of forty are dirty old men, and neither was I.

Hey, I'm serious. Quit rolling your eyes.

* * *

I had to laugh though. When I was a teenager, I would have probably gone crazy listening to the sounds I was hearing right now, which would without a doubt have sent my teenage hormones going into overdrive.

Now, the only thing that was going through my mind was how the loudness of their voices might be giving our location away.

"You're getting old, Jim." I said out loud, chuckling to myself and shaking my head.

So I ignored the laughing, yelling, and screeching going on next door, as I disassembled my weapons and their magazines and cleaned each of them out. And then I wiped each individual round down with a towel and counted the rounds I had left as I reloaded my magazines.

When I was done, my final round count was that I had thirteen full magazines for the Mk18 left, including the double mag set-up I had and the 60-rounder. I also had six full 18 round magazines for my Sig, as well as two full 8 round magazines for my H&K P7.

After the magazines had been reloaded, I still had a box and a half of 9mm ammo left over, and I also had four full boxes of .308 ammo for my M24.

Still a pretty decent amount of ammo left, but I needed to be careful just the same.

After I was done with all that, I took my gear out of the dryer and placed everything back into the pack and into my combat vest. I then took a long hot shower soaking for a very long while, letting the hot water relieve the knots in my back and soothing my tired, aching muscles. It's amazing the things we take for granted, and right now, a hot shower really was a luxury I was taking full advantage of.

Afterwards I put on an extra pair of clean clothes that I carried, and put the ones I had worn in the washer along with my hiking boots. I still had one pair of jeans and a navy blue tee shirt that I was wearing, and I had a pair of khakis and a tan tee shirt I could wear later as well.

Most PMC's don't usually wear military "cammies" all the time, like the regular military do. Most prefer to wear clothes that are more comfortable as well as more rugged than military-issue camouflage fatigues, although on a mission, they will wear " cammies" to suit the needs of the mission at hand.

As I waited for my clothes to wash, I did a search of the homeowner's kitchen and found some things I could snack on, but yeah, you guessed it. No coffee anywhere.

Ah well, at least he had cocoa.

* * *

I brewed up a cup and then I sat down on the floor leaning against the living room sofa, and as a precaution, I replaced all the batteries on all the electronic equipment mounted on my Mk18 which included my weaponlight, DBAL laser unit, and Eotech sight.

And as I worked, I thought about everything that had happened back at the river, and I knew that what was bothering me hadn't gone unnoticed by the teens or Shizuka.

It wasn't my plunge off the bridge or my tiff with Saeko or the people that I had killed today, that was bothering me right now. As a matter of fact, I wasn't upset that much at all about any of that, but my conscience **was** nagging me a bit on something else.

What I was really worried about was the excitement I was feeling at having actually been in real combat for the first time, ever.

When I had finished my "ride-a-longs" with EMS during my EMT-Basic training back in 1986, I was thrilled beyond words about the new adventure I had just experienced in a line of work that I wasn't too sure I'd wanted to get involved with in the first place.

And after making some really interesting calls with EMS and observing the Paramedics in action during that phase of my training, I was really pumped about a career as a Paramedic, after that.

And after my first structure fire as a rookie Fireman years later, I was stoked once again about my new experiences in such an exciting field, and I was practically crowing like a rooster about my first structure fire, even though it really wasn't all that bad.

And after I had spent 26 years helping people, I had finally become too "burned out" to want to continue any more, as well as some other things that happened that made me finally turn in my papers.

But it still hurt so very much to leave the only life I'd ever known when the time came for me to leave it all behind.

And when I became a PMC, I knew that I would have to change that mentality of mine about trying to help people all the time, and I would have to get used to the idea that I might have to actually open fire on people and take their life, in order to save my buddies and also to preserve my own life as well.

And that had proven so true today.

Today, I had killed ten people, not to mention all the Infected I had killed since this whole thing began.

Before today, I've never even thrown another punch at another person in anger much less shoot nine of them and taken another out with my knife.

That being the case, most people would have thought that I'd be extremely remorseful and probably start crying and calling myself a murderer and how could I ever do such a thing, and so on. Even though the people I had killed were the actual antagonists and I had only been trying to protect a bunch of innocent kids.

And the truth was, I really did feel regret having to kill those people. I may have had to kill in self-defense. But I was not a murderer. And I took no pleasure in it, whatsoever.

But what I was feeling right now was the same thrill I had experienced before, as a rookie Paramedic and as a rookie Firefighter.

And as I finished replacing all the batteries on my rifle and wiped down my knife after washing off all the blood, I kept re-living everything I had done since the firefight at the airport, thinking about every detail of every moment of what had happened.

The firefight against the Infected at the airport and the park, the helicopter flight and the crash afterwards, the E&E after I split up from my team at the park, my recon at the bridge, my preparing myself for combat at the hill, my trailing the kids looking for possible threats, the stalking I did of the men at the hill who came to ambush the kids, the silent movement I had done up until the moment just before I clamped my hand over that one fellow's mouth and then used my knife, and then the firefight with those men afterwards.

I could not stop the feeling I was having right now and I felt guilty for what it was that I was feeling, because now as I sat down quietly in someone else's luxurious condo, I had to admit.

I had loved every moment of it.

* * *

The fatigue started to really hit me about then, but I did my best to stay awake. And as soon as the buzzer on the dryer went off indicating that my shoes were dry I got up off the floor and took them out of the dryer and put them on my feet, enjoying the warmth on my tired feet.

I wanted to head back and check on the teens, but I was really tired right now, so I went back to the living room and stretched out on the sofa. And as I lay there I laughed a little at myself. I had successfully protected the teens from two separate attacks and a part of me wished the guys had seen it, just so they could see how far I'd come since I first walked through the gates at the training center in Nevada.

But then another part of me hoped no one would know about what I had done because I fully expected the guys to royally chew my ass out for taking such a huge risk.

That, and if Saeko ever found out exactly what had happened up there on the hill, she'd kill me for sure.

Even though I wished I could have seen everything that had happened on video, I was really glad that it was a good thing there **wasn't **any evidence of what had really happened out there.

And then I laughed again at my earlier thought of an unmanned drone flying overhead and capturing the whole thing on film and Gunny Ermey narrating it.

Of course the whole possibility of a drone catching our little adventure on video was impossible, not to mention just plain silly. The whole world was in the throes of a major disaster and all resources, military and otherwise were being stretched to their absolute limits trying to deal with it.

Nobody in their right mind would care less about the story of our little band and the trials we were facing much less expend any resources like a drone or rescue team on our behalf. I laughed again at how silly such a thing would be as I checked the electronics on my carbine to make sure they were working.

* * *

_Hours earlier._

Location: Ifurita Air Base JSDF

Personal quarters of General Isoroku Ihara.

"I'll do what I can Soichiro-kun. You're having that chip surgically placed in her was a great help. Give my best regards to your wife. I'll contact you as soon as I have something. You're welcome old friend. Goodbye." General Isoroku Ihara said to the person on the receiving end of his cell phone as he hung up with a heavy sigh.

The frown on his face furrowed even deeper than it had in the past two days since the Outbreak began, and now as JSDF forces were being overrun and his own resources were being depleted at an incredible rate, General Ihara was now even more greatly troubled by the phone call he had just received from an old friend.

A friend who he would have gladly sacrifice everything for, and now after making contact with him and accepting his unusual request, the General was certain that he probably **would be** sacrificing his entire career for what he was about to do to help his friend in the middle of this crisis.

Ihara sighed again as he turned on his phone and dialed a number. As the receiving caller answered the phone on the other end, the General greeted another friend. A young officer that was also the son of an old friend from his Academy days.

"Ken-chan! How are you? Yes, I'm fine, thanks. I have something to ask of you." The General said, pausing for a moment before he continued.

"Are any one of the drones Command has assigned to reconnaissance along Sector 3-Alpha along the coast, anywhere near Tokonosu City?" The General listened for a moment and then breathed a sigh of relief at the affirmative reply on the other end of the phone.

Diverting a drone off a set flight path without good reason would be disastrous to his career during a crisis like the one they faced now.

However, having it make a slight detour and make a pass over an area on the way to its intended flight path wouldn't rouse that much suspicion.

"I might not have to face a court martial after all." The General chuckled.

Not that his orders would be questioned or countermanded anyway under the circumstances.

The Outbreak had already taken its toll on Japan's Self Defense Forces, and many of its Senior staff had already fallen along with many of their men in the battle to save their countrymen from an enemy unlike any they could have ever imagined.

Normally, the flight path of a drone could only be diverted during an emergency, or a classified mission. However, now in the middle of this crisis, normal military protocol was taking a back seat more often than ever before, and this little detour Ihara was directing would not raise any real suspicion.

"Good." Ihara replied. "I have some coordinates I want your people to make a pass over before they orbit the drone around the city. Go ahead and copy these coordinates down and I'll be there in about 20 minutes. Thank you Major. The coordinates are….."

"General Ihara hung up after giving the young Major the desired coordinates for the unarmed drone orbiting over Tokonosu City, which was currently recording the movements of JSDF troops below and gathering intelligence on the catastrophe they were desperately trying to bring under control.

He sat behind his desk a while longer going over the current logistical reports before he left his quarters and headed for the Command Center.

Dispensing with the customary formalities that came with his rank as he walked into the Command Center, General Ihara entered and immediately walked towards the young officer he had spoken to on his cell phone earlier.

* * *

"Welcome General." The young Major replied after the General had told everyone in the room to "carry on" with their duties.

"The Drone Operators flew over the coordinates you gave, sir. And the images we're receiving warranted further inspection I believe, so I ordered them to orbit over the target area for a while longer instead of a quick pass as you ordered."

"Oh?" Ihara asked, surprised.

"Yes sir, And I really think you should see this." The young officer said as he waved him over to the monitors that displayed the images being received by the drone as it orbited the area where the General had requested the fly-by.

"What's wrong? The General asked, slightly puzzled.

"Nothing wrong, sir, just,…interesting." The Major replied pointing at the screens.

Each of the large monitors that the Major pointed at showed the images being recorded in real time by the drone, the powerful cameras displaying the images being sent back to the Command Center in infra-red, starlight, and normal view.

"What do you mean,…..interesting?" Ihara asked.

"Sir, as the drone flew over the coordinates you requested, eleven separate heat signatures showed up on FLIR. Four of them were walking single file along a small stretch of road alongside the canal just north of Tokonosu Bashi. They were, and still are, headed northwest as you can see."

General Ihara looked at the large monitor showing the IR image of a small group of people walking in the dark, each of them spaced several feet apart and walking in single file, three of them seeming to be carrying weapons of some sort as they walked.

The General's eyes switched from the IR image to the monitor display in normal view as he spotted one of the people walking in line sporting a shocking pink hairdo that immediately caused him to suck in his breath.

"Sir, the people in that group seem to be three women, and one male. Two of the women are carrying home-made weapons, while one is unarmed, and the one boy with them walking towards the rear is carrying a rifle, sir." The Major explained. "Their clothing also suggests they're schoolchildren."

Ihara grunted in response, as the Major continued.

"This other contact was trailing them from about 50 meters behind, originally." The Major continued, as he pointed to a large solitary figure of a man on the screen. "He's a very large male, and very heavily armed as well. He was also walking behind the schoolchildren in an unmistakable zigzag pattern."

"Has he shown any signs of aggression towards the children?" The General asked aloud, his brow now wrinkled with worry.

"None so far as we've noticed, sir." The Major replied. "He **is** staying concealed from their view however. It appears that he's using NVG's as he moves, and the way he's moving in that zigzag pattern suggests he might have some military training as well. But it's when these other contacts showed up that things really got interesting, sir."

"What other targets?" The General asked, scanning the screens.

"Here, sir." The Major said pointing at the top of the screen as the drone banked and the ghostly images of the people the Major was talking about finally came into view.

" When these other people entered the area, sir, then this man trailing the children suddenly started rushing forward when these other contacts came into view." The Major explained.

* * *

"I see what you mean, about "interesting." General Ihara said as the ghostly figures of five obviously armed men that had been walking towards the group, suddenly stopped and lay on the ground as a sixth, carrying a rifle or shotgun in his hands, continued on.

All eyes not busy with other duties, were glued to the monitors watching the small drama unfold as the man in the middle of the field trailing the small group of children and now way in front of them suddenly froze, apparently seeing the other man approaching him.

He then lay on the ground removing the large field pack he was carrying as the man with the rifle or shotgun closed in and then suddenly slowed down as if to observe the children.

Everyone stood in hushed silence as the man lying on the ground suddenly reached down and pulled what appeared to be a large knife from his boot and then began to approach the man with the shotgun from behind.

There was a startled gasp from someone in the Command Room as they all watched the larger man on the monitor suddenly grab the smaller man from behind and stabbed downward with his knife. And then as they watched, he then pulled the still struggling man away from the edge of the hill as the children kept on walking, apparently unaware of the attack.

"Oh shit." A female Captain in the room said out loud as the man suddenly twisted the other man's neck and then retrieved his pack and the dead man's shotgun and then started heading towards the men still lying on the ground.

"Major, are there any patrols from the Ground Forces near that area?" Ihara asked, not removing his eyes from the monitors.

"I already had some people look into that sir, and their nearest patrol is at Tokonosu Bashi assisting the police and they've got their hands full. The rest of the Ground Forces in the area are scattered throughout the city trying to help control the Infected, and they're unable to maintain effective communication with their people in the field in this area, sir."

"I'm sorry General." The Major said apologetically.

"Understood, Major. Thank you for trying." General Ihara replied.

As Ihara watched, the small group of children suddenly stopped for some reason and seemed to be speaking to one another for a moment before two of them ran towards the river and seemed to be sitting near the water's edge.

One of them that had run out into the darkness Ihara noticed, was the young girl with the shocking pink hair.

* * *

Ihara swore under his breath and began grinding his teeth as he continued to watch helplessly at each screen as the men lying on the ground suddenly got up and appeared to be getting ready to attack the young travelers.

He then swore out loud as a fierce firefight erupted when the large man came up and surprised the other men that were lying on the ground from behind, killing all of them and then engaging another man that had probably only been wounded and had shot at him three times, missing him as the larger man then fired his weapon, the muzzle flash from his weapon showing up on the screen three times as the other man then collapsed and fell down the hill.

After the fight was over, Ihara tensed as the man walked over to the children. He then breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the man and the children continued walking along the road together after a brief moment, with the large man walking "point" leading the schoolchildren.

"So he was protecting them after all." The Major said out loud, also sighing with relief.

"It would appear so." Ihara agreed, as he continued watching the monitor.

"They appear to still be heading northwest, General." The Major stated as the small group kept on walking completely unaware that their movements were being watched.

"Keep the drone fixed on them for now and contact me if they take shelter somewhere. I'll be in my quarters in the meantime. Keep me informed if anything happens." Ihara ordered as the Major turned around and looked at him.

"Yes sir." The Major acknowledged and then asked. "General, is there something I should know about these people, sir?"

General Ihara understood the reason behind the Major's question. In a time of crisis like this, it was highly unusual to focus the flight path of such a highly valuable resource such as a drone on a single group of people while an entire city was in crisis and its use could definitely be applied elsewhere more strategic.

"Let's just say that big fellow that just took out all those men single-handedly is definitely a "person of interest" Major." The General replied, trying to keep his true interest revealed.

"And I'd also like to know where those people are headed before we break off the drone back to its assigned patrol. That man may be protecting those children for now, but that doesn't mean he isn't going to be a threat to them later. I want to know the exact location of where he stops for the night."

"Understood sir." The Major acknowledged, as he saluted his superior officer.

Ihara returned the young officer's salute and then walked through the doors as he left the Command Center and returned to his quarters nearby. As soon as he sat at his desk, he punched up the re-dial button on his phone and waited for a response.

"Soichiro-kun, it's me. We found her. And yes my friend, she's alive. But there's a problem….."

* * *

I had tuned on the television trying to catch whatever news was going on at the time, having no doubts that all the newscasters would be focused on the Outbreak and the crisis at hand. The biggest problem I had as I flipped through each channel was, you guessed it, trying to find a channel where everyone was speaking in a language I could understand.

Maybe it was too much to ask for, but considering that in America we have cable channels in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Indian, and Arabic and so on, I was hoping there was at least one in English still working here in Japan.

Despite the language barrier, I could tell by the footage that the Contagion had spread faster than anyone could have imagined and seemed to be contained to most of the more financially secure and technologically advanced countries, just like I had theorized.

There was also some very shocking footage of some parts of certain cities in America being napalmed by A-10's trying desperately to hold back the hordes the military was engaging.

I couldn't recognize the cities being fired upon, but to see that happening back home, was still a shock to me.

As I flipped through the channels, the footage got only grimmer and much more graphic than the previous channel. And in a touch of irony, I nearly laughed at seeing lines of traffic of thousands of my fellow Americans trying to escape to Mexico while the Mexican army tried to hold them back.

I didn't laugh though, because somewhere in that traffic, my own family and friends might also be fleeing for their lives and the helplessness I felt at being across the world unable to help them came back with a vengeance.

I was lost in thoughts of my own despair when the sudden blast of a rifle being fired from extremely close by, snapped me out of my funk and I jumped to my feet snatching up my Mk18 and my combat vest as I ran across the room and then bounded up the stairs.

* * *

I made it up to the balcony and found Kouta leaning against the far railing looking down towards the end of the street. And I also noticed something else.

"Where did you get THAT?" I said pointing at the very high-tech rifle he was holding as I climbed over the railing of my balcony and then over the railing on his side and then finally moved up next to him.

"Komuro and I found a weapons locker inside." Kouta replied, beaming with joy at his new "toy."

"We also found another rifle, a shotgun and a crossbow in it as well as a ton of ammo."

"Awesome find." I said as I looked at his rifle. And then stared in the direction he had been shooting. "What are you shooting at by the way, son?"

"There's a little girl just up the street that's under attack. Komuro-kun and I saw her and her father trying to find shelter in a house and the people inside killed him as he was banging on their door. She's out in the yard crying next to his body and the sound of her voice attracted a bunch of THEM. I shot a couple trying to get to her and Komuro left to try to rescue her."

"Oh." I said absent-mindedly, not really paying attention to the last part Kouta had said, as I scanned up the street with my monocular and finally spotted the house he was talking about.

It wasn't hard to find, the yard was pretty well lit up and the gate was open with about a couple dozen Infected heading towards the open gate.

I couldn't get a visual on the little girl, but she must still be alive and kicking and definitely wailing loud enough to be heard by every Infected in the area apparently. There were a few Infected walking down the street headed for the people trying to evacuate on Tokonosu Bridge. But with her crying, the sound of her voice was attracting **very** unwanted company, and in increasing numbers. And if we didn't move fast, a rescue of that little girl would be tough.

* * *

"HE'S DOING, WHAT?!" I roared, finally realizing what Kouta had just told me.

Kouta shrunk back at my reaction and seemed hesitant to answer me, which was understandable; I was pretty steamed at Takashi's recklessness.

And yes, I realize the irony of what I just said about Takashi being reckless. So sue me.

"He-he's going to rescue her." He stammered.

"HOW?!" The American asked, his eyes widened in horror.

"He's going to ride over there in his motorcycle and get her." Kouta replied still spooked by the look on the man's face.

I heard a noise coming from the driveway below and looked over the railing to find Takashi trying to start his bike while Saeko and Rei where preparing to open the gates. I saw a hastily constructed little ramp sitting at the end of the driveway and I figured out exactly what Takashi had been planning to do.

"Oh, somebody help keep me from beating this boy." I thought to myself.

"STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" I yelled at the teens below, as their heads snapped up to look at me.

"Jimu-san!" Takashi yelled up at me. "A little girl's in danger! I have to try to rescue her!"

"FINE!" I roared. "BUT NOT, THAT WAY!"

"Well how then?' Takashi shot back.

"Just wait till I get down there!" I called out to him. "Trust me; I got a better way of getting to her!"

I didn't actually. But I wasn't about to let him go off half-cocked and get himself killed. I figured by the time I got down there, I would have pulled something out of my head to use as a rescue plan that would be less dangerous and have more success than Takashi's half-ass Evil Knievel stunt.

"I swear that kid's heart is in the right place but his head is somewhere else completely!" I grumbled as I looked over at Kouta who acted like he was afraid I was gonna hit him.

"Keep them off of her. We'll be enroute to her location and try a rescue but you're it, till we get there. I also want you to watch your shots when we get there, because we're gonna be going in hot and we can't afford any mistakes, got it?"

"YES, SIR!" Kouta replied giving me a thumbs up.

"Good man." I said as I turned around, intending to head for the door.

"OH YEAH!"

* * *

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself much to my embarrassment. I have to admit, it was not a sight I expected to see. And to be honest, I doubt any man could have **not** reacted the way I did if he could have seen (cough) what I saw.

Of course, I wasn't the only one who was struck stupid by the sight of Shizuka standing naked next to Saya at the doorway either.

"SHI-SHIZUKA-SENSEI!" Kouta stammered, barely able to breathe at the sight of the naked nurse in front of us.

"Hai?" Shizuka replied sleepily as she absent-mindedly raised up the medical kit she was carrying at the same time that had been strategically been covering certain (cough) "vital" areas.

"Oh my." I thought turning around trying not to stare, and for some reason, unable to find my voice, as I could hear Kouta practically gasping for air next to me.

I quickly snapped out of it, feeling like an ass, as Saya snapped at both of us for making so much noise.

"SHIZUKA!" I yelled at her, snapping the nurse out of her drowsiness. "I need you to come with me, NOW!" I said as I ran over to her and grabbed her arm, yanking her behind me as we went through the door, while she screamed in protest as I dragged her naked towards the stairs.

* * *

"What's taking him so long?" Takashi grumbled as he waited next to his bike.

"I don't know, but if he doesn't get down here soon, a rescue attempt will be moot." Saeko said frustrated.

At that moment, the American finally came around the corner carrying a shotgun, his rifle hanging by its sling, and also dragging Shizuka dressed in a bathrobe, by the arm.

"Takashi, come with us." The man said as he let go of Shizuka's arm.

"What are we doing?" Takashi asked puzzled.

"We're taking the Humvee for the rescue instead of your bike. Do you still have that revolver with you?" I replied.

"Yes." Takashi replied.

"Good, let's go." I said headed for the gate, but stopped when Saeko grabbed my arm.

"Jimu-san, there's a bunch of THEM just outside the gate." She warned.

"How many?" I asked as I stared at the gate.

"Perhaps a dozen." Saeko replied. "Perhaps you should re-think your plan?"

"No, we'll just try another way of egress." I said as I motioned for Shizuka and Takashi to follow me as we walked up the steps to the railing overlooking the street.

* * *

I did a quick scan up and down the street and saw about eight Infected shuffling near the gate and about six more more shuffling around nearby as well. They would be clear of the gate in a few moments, but I didn't think the young girl we were trying to rescue had that much time to wait for the Infected to shuffle on, just so we could walk through the front gate.

"All right, both of you over the fence, **quietly**." I whispered to Takashi and Shizuka as I flung my leg over the railing and quietly let myself down to the ground. As soon as my feet hit the ground I quickly checked to make sure that none of the Infected had heard me and had turned direction back towards us, as I brought my carbine up to my shoulder so I could cover Takashi and Shizuka as they dropped down too.

I heard Takashi come over the railing and drop to the ground. And as he moved up to my side, I looked up to see what was keeping Shizuka, who was still standing above us behind the railing looking down at us, her hands pressing down the front of her robe.

"What are you waiting for?!" I hissed. "Hurry up!"

"I'm coming!" Shizuka snapped at me whispering angrily. "Just don't look up!"

"Is **that** why you're taking so long? You're kidding me, right?" I said, looking up at her. "I think modesty is a moot point right now after that little show you just put on a minute ago."

"Go to hell!" Shizuka snapped.

* * *

As I heard Shizuka climb over the railing and then drop behind us. I motioned for both of them to head for the Humvee and unlock the doors while I covered them. As I was about to follow Takashi and Shizuka across the street to the Humvee, I heard a noise coming from above and as I looked up I saw Saeko also climbing over the railing, obviously determined to come with us.

And that's not all I saw, as I quickly looked back down again, and then closed my eyes and shook my head as I heard her silently drop to the ground next to me.

"Kids these days, I swear." I said under my breath.

In all the craziness, I had not noticed what Saeko had been wearing all this time until I looked up. And now that I had, I could not help but wonder what had gotten into these two women who seemed intent on flashing themselves to the whole world.

I had to laugh a little at myself too I have to admit.

When I was a younger man, I would have stopped to gawk at a pretty girl like Saeko, Rei, Saya and most definitely Shizuka the same as any young teen with raging hormones.

Nowadays though, it always struck me funny as to how back when I was a teen and saw a gorgeous girl passing by, I'd be in a hurry to undress her with my eyes.

Now, as I grew older, it seemed to me that now I was more in a hurry to make them put some clothes on.

* * *

It's hell getting old I guess. Or maybe it was just the fact that my "daddy" instincts were getting stronger and stronger when it came to the teens in my care, especially Saeko.

And seeing Saeko dressed the way she was sent me into "Daddy Dearest" mode faster than a lightning bolt.

* * *

Saeko had quickly climbed over the railing, seeking to join the others in their attempt to rescue the young girl that was in increasing danger every minute that passed. Her movements were cat-like as she stealthily dropped to the street below, with barely a sound heard as her feet hit the ground.

And as she stood up, she was startled to see the American standing directly in front of her, arms folded across his chest, a very cross expression on his face.

Wide-eyed, Saeko stepped back when the man leaned forward mere inches from her face and spoke in a very displeased tone.

"Young lady, just where exactly do you think you're** going**, especially dressed like **that**?!" The man said, staring directly into her eyes.

"I am going with all of you to help rescue the child." Saeko replied matter-of-factly. "And as for why I'm dressed this way, my clothes are washing and this is all I have to wear right now."

"Be that as it may, do you honestly expect me to allow you to go into a combat situation wearing only a kitchen apron and thong panties, Saeko-CHAN?!" The man asked in a scolding voice.

"It won't affect my fighting ability." Saeko replied defiantly. "And that being the case, I see no other reason why I shouldn't go."

The man narrowed his eyes at her answer.

"Don't you** dare** go the "brat" route with me young lady. I got enough trouble with Saya pulling that crap as it is." I said sternly.

Saeko's only response was to continue to glare at me, determined to go with us regardless of what I said.

Time for "Ojisan" to put his foot down.

* * *

"Look Saeko-chan." I said, still trying to be reasonable. "I meant what I said earlier about being honored and proud to fight at your side, but the fact is, your choice of wardrobe aside, if ever the group has to separate like right now, there needs to be someone in charge at all times with **each **separate group of people."

"Takashi and Shizuka are coming with me on this rescue. This means you need to stay here in command and take care of Rei, Saya and Kouta while we're gone, and if necessary, lead them to safety if something goes wrong."

"But." Saeko began.

"No, buts!" I hissed, and then caught myself before I let my frustration get the best of me.

Saeko just wanted to help, and I couldn't blame her for not wanting to be left behind either. It sucks being left out of anything in life especially something like this and she was definitely an excellent fighter, and I could definitely use her on this rescue.

But I couldn't take everyone with us, and I needed her to take care of the teens that were left behind.

And no matter how much she wanted to join us, she had to learn the responsibilities and the disappointments of being in command the same as Takashi would, and there was no more time for argument.

I reached over and gently grabbed both of her shoulders and looked directly into her eyes.

"Sweetie, I know you just want to help, and I respect you for it." I said gently.

"But your place is here, Saeko-chan." I said as I kissed her on the forehead and then grabbed her arm and forcefully walked her to the front gate that was now clear of the Infected that had moved further on down the street.

"Jimu-san!" Saeko protested as I opened the gate.

"Don't you Jimu-san me, young lady." I said, as I opened the gate and pushed Saeko through it, giving her a hard smack on her scantily-clad derriere as she went through.

"I love you like a daughter hon." I said, as she spun around and glared at me with an angry look on her face. "But if you force me to put my foot down because you refuse to listen to reason, then that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

"And right now, you've been placed in a position of responsibility, and now's not the time to argue about it because you don't agree with it."

"And another thing." I said, wagging my finger at her as if she were a small child. "Even though I'm not your father, if I ever see you walking around dressed like **this** again, you won't be able to sit down for a week, understand?"

"And that goes for you too Rei. Get some clothes on both of you." I snapped at the other young teen who was only slightly more dressed than Saeko was, although not by much, as I shut the gate and headed for the Humvee.

* * *

As I walked over to the Humvee, Shizuka and Takashi were both sitting in the front seat waiting for me.

"Sorry Shizuka, I need you in the back seat for now." I said as I opened up her door.

"You too, Takashi. Get in the back, buddy." I said as I headed towards the rear of the Humvee and removed the large five gallon jerry can of diesel fuel mounted on the rear of the Humvee, and placed it on the floor of the rear passenger seat, next to Takashi's leg.

"What are you doing?" Takashi asked, extremely confused.

"Preparing for the worst." The man replied. "Do you see any road flares back there?"

"Yes." Takashi replied, reaching back towards the trunk area and grabbing several flares in his hands.

"Good, place them on the floor and don't let them bounce around too much." I said as I headed towards the other side of the Humvee.

As Shizuka got out of the driver's seat, I opened the rear door for her and as she got in, I passed her the sawed-off shotgun I had taken from the bald man back at the river for her to place on the floor next to her.

"What are we doing?!" The two of them asked me, a little bit too loudly. I could see just how confused they were, but the truth was, I was still trying to work out the details of my plan, so they were just gonna have to wait till I had something intelligent to tell them.

"Trust me." I said smiling.

As I was about to enter the Humvee, I saw the gate open and Saeko poked her head out to look at me. She then opened the gate and acted as if she were going to begin walking back towards us.

I figured she had been stewing behind the gate, especially after I had slapped her bottom and had also slammed the door in her face. And I guess she had finally reached her boiling point and had decided that she was going to step outside and give me a piece of her mind.

I however, thought otherwise.

* * *

"YOUNG LADY, IF YOU DON'T MARCH YOURSELF RIGHT BACK IN THERE AND PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, I WILL SPANK YOUR BUTT WHEN I GET BACK, I SWEAR!" I roared as a few of the Infected down the street started to turn at the sound of my voice.

Noticing that the Infected had turned around, Saeko's eyes narrowed and she said something low and dirty under her breath that I couldn't hear, as she turned back around and slammed the gate closed behind her.

As I finally got into the driver's seat and shut the door, I heard Shizuka giggling at me.

"What?" I said, still annoyed at how screwed up this whole rescue was going.

"Oh nothing." Shizuka said still giggling. "Why? Are you going to scold me now too,…Papa?'

"Oh, shut up and put on your seat belt." I chuckled, as I started the big diesel and then put the Humvee into gear and drove out into the street.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I've tried as much as I could do to be as accurate as possible when it comes to the military part of my story. But as much as I would like to be as detailed as author Tom Clancy is with his books regarding anything military, those same resources that he has access to, are just not available to me. So as far as the drone scene of this chapter goes, I had to "wing it", literally.

So I apologize in advance to anyone in the military reading this chapter because I know, I'm way off with the actual procedures and capapbilities, concerning the use of a drone in the JSDF as well as the protocols and jargon used in the JSDF Command Center.

Also, I realize the scenes where the teens find Rika's guns and of course, the infamous "bath scene" have been left out. Since everyone has seen the anime and the manga, I figured there was no need to dwell on it.

Ya'll know what happened while Jim was in the other room so no need to spend a lot of time describing it in written form. ^_^

And don't worry, Jim and Saeko work it out without getting emotional.

See ya'll next time.


	21. Chapter 20: And Then There Was Alice 2

Last Alarm

Chapter Twenty

And Then There Was Alice Part Two

* * *

"**What are you doing**?!" Shizuka and Takashi asked me nervously as I drove the Humvee out into the street and then instead of turning left and driving towards the house where the little girl was hiding, I turned to the right instead, pointing the front of the Humvee **away** from the direction we were actually headed, and then stopped the vehicle and shifted the Humvee into reverse.

"For what we're about to attempt, I can't take the risk of damaging the engine." I began to explain. "And I also want to have this thing facing this same way so that we can take off from down there driving forward instead of having to drive in reverse all the way back here."

"Are you sure this is wise?" Shizuka replied. "It seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth."

"Trust me." I replied. "Once we get over there we're going to be stirring up one hell of a hornet's nest and after we're done, believe me, we'll want to bug out of there in an awful hurry, and I would rather you be driving us out of there going forward than trying to drive backwards at high speed."

"ME?!" Shizuka squeaked in horror. "You mean **I'm** going to be driving after all?"

"Yes, right after we get there, **you'll **be driving from that point on while Takashi and I grab the girl." I replied, as I flipped the switch to my laser unit "ON" and checked my Eotech sight to make sure it was working perfectly and then checked the safety on my carbine.

"**What exactly are we doing, by the way?!"** Both of them asked, and from the sound of their voices they were now even more confused and a whole lot more frightened than before.

I didn't blame them one bit. Even I was beginning to have my doubts that this crazy stunt was going to work.

And I also knew that any experienced combat vet worth his salt would have thought that what I was about to attempt was absolutely nuts and had me committed somewhere. And right after I explained my plan to Takashi and Shizuka , the two of them were just about a heartbeat away from jumping right back out of the Humvee and telling me to get bent.

"**ARE YOU CRAZY?!"** They both yelled at me.

* * *

"Hey, you were the one that wanted to go flying over there in your motorcycle alone, remember?" I reminded Takashi.

Takashi frowned at my comment but said nothing.

Boy, how quick he was to criticize my plan when his had been even more psychotic than mine.

"How many rounds do you have left in that revolver?" I asked him as I double-checked the amount of ammo in the magazine for my carbine and then tossed the sling over my neck as I then laid the weapon on my lap.

"Rounds?" Takashi asked, confused.

"Bullets." I explained, rolling my eyes.

Oh yeah, this rescue plan was just getting better and better.

"How many bullets do you have left?" I repeated.

"Three." He replied.

"Alright Takashi, your job is to grab the girl and **that's it**, understand?" I said looking at him. "Wait till I get outside the door and then tell you which way to go before you come out of the vehicle."

"You go the direction I tell you, and **only** the direction I tell you. You **don't** get creative, you **don't** try something that you think will work better, you just grab the girl **period,** and get your butts back in here, **got it?"**

"Hai." Takashi replied.

"And one more thing, son." I said looking directly into his eyes. "This is a rescue, not a video game. I don't want you shooting at **anything** unless something really goes bad and you have to shoot to save your life. And if you absolutely **have** to shoot, you watch what you shoot at, and then I want you to grab the girl, no matter how much she fights you, and you get back in here with her, **quick**. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." Takashi replied nodding his head.

I looked back at their faces as I gave them a quick smile to try to reassure them a little.

Yeah, as if that really could have possibly worked to calm their nerves, because it was very plain to see, they were both still scared almost out of their minds.

"We'll be okay, guys." I said as I turned back around and tried to mentally prepare myself for what we were about to do. "Just focus on what I told you and everything will work out fine."

Boy, do I really hate lying to people.

* * *

Neither one of them said anything in reply, but I knew that each of them were just digging deep within themselves to find every bit of inner strength and courage they would need for the suicidal task ahead, the same as I was.

"Okay you two, take a deep breath." I said as I took one along with them.

I was just as scared as they were, and this was definitely no joyride to the beach that we were going on.

Even after all those years of sheer terror that I faced on the job at times, this was still a nerve-racking situation to be in.

"Here we go." I said as I stepped on the accelerator.

* * *

"**What is he doing?!"** Saya asked out loud as she, Rei, and Saeko watched the American drive the vehicle out of its parking space and out into the street and then turned the vehicle in the wrong direction, appearing to their eyes to have been confused as to which direction he should be going.

He then stopped the vehicle and then seemed to pause for a few moments speaking to the passengers in the back seat before he suddenly began driving down the street in **reverse**, heading directly towards the mob of Infected gathering around the open gates of the house where the young girl was trapped.

"I have no idea." Saeko replied, her anger forgotten and replaced with confusion and worry over the American's mind boggling course of action.

Saya had already relayed the American's orders that they needed to gather their belongings and prepare to evacuate once the rescue party returned. However, after watching him driving the vehicle in reverse all the way down the street, they could not bring themselves to tear their eyes away from the drama unfolding in front of them.

"Hirano!" Saya yelled as she watched the heavy duty vehicle barreling down the street in reverse.** "What's he doing?"**

After not receiving an immediate answer, Saya frowned in annoyance as she looked up at the second floor balcony just above her head at the teenage boy who was still observing the spot where the young girl was hiding from the Infected.

"Hirano?!" Saya yelled again, as she noticed that Kouta was still peering through his riflescope, and intentionally ignoring her.

"HIRANO! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Say screamed, angry at being ignored.

Watching from his shooting position on the second floor, Kouta stared through the eyepiece of the riflescope and steadied himself as he opened fire on another Infected that had walked through the gate. He was still keeping any of THEM from coming any closer to the frightened child, but their numbers were increasing and he couldn't hold all of them back for very much longer.

And as he was keeping careful watch over the girl and keeping all of the Infected at bay, Kouta also prepared himself for the difficult task ahead of covering his comrades when they arrived at the front gates of the house as he saw the Humvee driving down the street, **in reverse.**

Kouta was trying extremely hard to be one hundred percent completely focused on his job, and the shrill voice of Saya Takagi constantly nagging him was really starting to upset his concentration.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP WOMAN?! I'M TRYING TO FOCUS HERE!" Kouta roared, as he rested the reticle of the scope on another Infected and squeezed the trigger.

Saya gulped at Kouta's rebuke and stayed silent as he kept shooting, and after a moment she balled her fists and ground her teeth in anger as Rei and Saeko giggled at the couple's latest little tiff.

"He's getting bolder." Saeko thought to herself. "Takagi-san is certainly going to have her hands full with him before long."

Saeko's thoughts then became serious again as she continued to gaze down the street at the backwards moving vehicle as it barreled down the street, closing in quickly on the fast growing crowd of Infected people.

"Jimu-san, I hope you know what you're doing." She thought to herself as the vehicle began to impact a few stragglers that were shuffling down the street.

* * *

As we barreled down the street in reverse, it was dead silent in the cab of the Humvee. And I would have loved to have said that it was because we were all focusing on the job at hand, but that would have been a lie.

Although I do have to say, I was very impressed with the way Shizuka and Takashi were handling themselves. But the real reason everyone was so quiet was because we were all scared to death.

But to their credit, they were both determined to see this thing through no matter what no matter how frightened they were, just as I was.

And as we got closer and closer to the open gate I kept carefully watching my mirrors as I aimed the rear of the Humvee straight towards it, as we then began to make contact with a few of the Infected that were shuffling towards the rest of the growing mob gathering near the front gate of the house.

A common misconception that most people have is that ramming anything with the front end of a heavy-duty vehicle will not result in any major damage if the vehicle is built pretty stout like a pick-up or in this case, a military Humvee. The real truth is however, that Humvees may look as strong as a tank, but they'll damage just as easily as any vehicle if you're too aggressive in the way you drive it, especially if you try to use it as a battering ram.

Of course, using your vehicle as a battering ram, **period**, is still a **very **bad idea regardless. But we still had to get the small crowd of Infected out of our way somehow.

And in order not to damage the engine and make it easier for us to haul butt away from the scene after we had performed the rescue, I was driving in reverse hoping that the precaution I was taking would work to our benefit. It was a crazy plan no matter how you looked at it, though.

And besides being crazy, my plan also wasn't perfect either.

We might not damage the front of the vehicle or the engine or the drivetrain by what I was doing. But in truth, the rear of any vehicle is still much more vulnerable to damage than the front, especially because of the fuel tank that is located in the rear of the vehicle, which is also **very** vulnerable to damage.

This was a fact I had intentionally not mentioned before when I had hastily briefed Takashi and Shizuka of how we were going to perform our little rescue.

A fact that made me all the more apprehensive as we started to "bump" into a few of the Infected that were shuffling in the middle of the street, headed for the sounds of the crying girl.

And as I saw the first of the Infected stragglers coming into view, I intentionally slowed down as I braced myself for the impact I knew was coming.

* * *

"**Hang on!"** I yelled as we heard the awful sounds of metal impacting flesh and we all felt the vehicle lift up several times as we ran over those few stragglers shuffling down the street.

My slowing down was probably helping to prevent, or at least reduce any damage to the vehicle as we impacted against the Infected in our path. But still, it was quite a jolt each time we hit one of "Them".

And after years of seeing what damage a deer or a human body can do to a vehicle traveling at high speed, well, I didn't want to take any chances by going any faster.

It was still a horrible experience though for all of us inside the cab knowing what it was that we were hitting with each impact.

* * *

I tried to ignore that, and I also tried not to think about all the other things that could go wrong with this crazy stunt of mine as I kept my foot on the accelerator and struggled to keep the vehicle in control as I continued to drive backwards, using only my mirrors to see.

Driving in reverse using only your mirrors is a required skill if you're a Paramedic or a Firefighter. The reason for that is because there are no rear view mirrors in an ambulance or fire truck. The "box" of an ambulance and the closed cab of a fire truck make having a rear view mirror negligible. So we're trained to be able to back up without one by using only our side view mirrors.

Of course, normally there's a spotter outside to help direct us as we drive backwards so we don't bump into something, because you still have a major blind spot back there. But there was absolutely no chance of having a spotter back there at the speeds we were traveling. Especially with all the Infected walking around, as I continued driving backwards occasionally impacting a straggler here and there as we closed in on the open gate, where a pretty good sized group of Infected people were beginning to gather.

And as we got closer, I then slowed the vehicle once more and steered the wheel closer to the wall as the Infected, hearing the sound of the approaching Humvee, stopped moving and began turning towards us.

"**BRACE YOURSELVES!"** I yelled as I stepped on the accelerator gathering a little more speed as the rear of the Humvee made contact with the large crowd of Infected.

Instead of hitting them at high speed which would have only served to damage the rear of the Humvee and caused me to lose control and crash, I used just enough speed to basically "push" the Infected away from the open gate and out of the way, without causing any major damage to the Humvee itself.

And also by getting as close to the wall as I did, I successfully blocked any possible way for the Infected to try to squeeze through by any other way, other than crawling underneath the Humvee.

It was still one heck of a **"thump"** though when we plowed into them. And even worse than that, came the gruesome sound of bodies impacting the Humvee and bones shattering as the Infected were being ground underneath our wheels.

I tried not to think of about what injuries that my using the Humvee as a battering ram had done to the Infected surrounding all of us, even though the sounds of it all made it extremely difficult to think about anything else.

Over the years, I've seen the effects a moving vehicle has had on a human body upon impact even at slow speeds, and I tried hard not to think about everything that was going on around us as I lined up the front passenger door with the open gate and put the Humvee in "Neutral."

* * *

"**GET READY!"** I yelled to Takashi and Shizuka as I unbuckled my seat belt and then slid over and across the engine cover which is the big "hump" that separates the driver's seat from the passenger seat.

And just like I had told her to do earlier when I had briefed them of my plan, I felt Shizuka climbing into the driver's seat immediately after I got out of it, and then felt Takashi scramble up behind me on top of the engine cover and then place his hand on my shoulder letting me know he was ready.

"**Shizuka, standby and keep the engine running!"** I yelled over the moans of the Infected and the sound of their hands banging loudly on the sides of the Humvee, threatening to shatter the glass with each impact.

It had only been seconds since I had stopped the Humvee and already we were surrounded and getting more and more over our heads with this crazy stunt as it sounded like the entire city was pounding on us outside. It was terrifying beyond all belief, but everyone was still keeping it together, thank goodness.

"**HAI!** She replied, obviously scared out of her wits, but determined to do her part.

"**Takashi! "** I yelled as an Infected woman walked up to my door and began banging on the window.

"**Hai!"** He replied.

"**Watch your feet coming out, and watch yourself at all times!"** I roared, as I popped the door latch and slammed both of my feet into the door causing it to fly open and knock the Infected woman to the ground as the door struck her.

I took a quick glance at the ground first and saw a mangled pair of legs below me still twitching, their owners pulverized by the tires rolling over them.

Ignoring the gruesome sight, I then jumped through the door with my carbine raised and fired once into the skull of the woman I had just knocked down.

* * *

Whenever Military Spec Ops or Police SWAT Teams make a tactical entry to clear a room or a hostile area, they form up outside in what's called a "stack". And then when everyone in the team are in position they then make their entry, with each member covering a certain section of the room or area they are clearing and shooting the targets within their assigned sector.

Sometimes though, it may not be an entire team clearing a room or hostile area, but perhaps just a couple of guys only, like the situation here with just Takashi and I. And because it's only two people instead of a larger team, the two operators are then forced to have to work a whole lot harder to secure the scene by themselves.

In truth, being the only trained person here, the **whole yard** was actually my assigned sector, and so as I walked through the gate, I quickly scanned the entire yard and quickly visualized all the threats that were nearby.

And as I quickly scanned the yard, I spotted the little girl crying in the left corner with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears, scared completely out of her mind as a little black and white puppy stood in front of her yapping away at all the Infected walking towards her.

There was also about eight of the Infected lying on the ground, physical proof of Kouta's marksmanship.

However, there were three of them still moving around, shuffling towards the girl. And as I had entered the yard, I also saw the shadow of one of them behind some clothes hanging on a clothesline as the Infected person behind it also headed towards the young girl, who was now screaming loudly at the sounds of the gunfire.

"**CLEAR RIGHT!"** I yelled, seeing no threats on our right side as I then turned to my left and placed the ring of the holosight on the closest threat. And just as I was about to squeeze the trigger and take out the one nearest me behind the clothesline, a sudden spray of blood splashed across the freshly laundered shirts and the body of the Infected crumpled to the ground.

"Damn, that was an awesome shot, Kouta." I thought as I swept my carbine to the left.

* * *

"**TAKASHI! LEFT CORNER! WATCH YOURSELF! "** I roared, as I opened fire on the three Infected that were shuffling towards the girl, hoping that I could take them out quickly as Takashi swerved around behind me to get to her.

Fortunately, I was able to take them out quickly before they got too close to the girl as they fell in a heap after being shot a few feet away from her. However, the report from my carbine only caused her to scream louder with each shot, which I knew would only serve to increase her fear of us and make grabbing her and trying to make a fast extraction all the more difficult.

After I took out the three Infected, I swept my carbine left and right again, clearing the rest of the yard, after which I then turned towards the direction of the condo and waved my hand towards Kouta letting him know that we were clear, before I walked over to see why Takashi and the young girl weren't already heading for the Humvee yet as I spotted them still in the same corner next to her deceased father.

As I walked up towards the two kids, I found Takashi kneeling next to the little girl, who was crying uncontrollably as Takashi was busy trying to console her instead of just scooping her up and running back to the Humvee, like I had told him to.

She was very young, maybe about ten years old or so and visibly shaken up by everything that was going on, not to mention that she was obviously heartbroken over the death of her father who was lying right there in front of her with a huge bleeding wound to his abdomen. And obviously feeling sorry for her, Takashi was trying his best to console her as she continued to cry, ignoring his pleas for her to come with us.

Takashi was a good kid, with a kind heart, and those kinds of qualities are getting rarer and rarer to find in people nowadays, but what was really needed now in our current situation was quick action and not sympathy.

A sad fact in Emergency Services is that unfortunately, we can't always stop to offer comforting words or a warm embrace when tragedy strikes, because sometimes people's lives may still be very much in danger. And as much as some people may protest, sometimes being gentle just isn't the right thing to do if the victims of a tragedy are still in a very dangerous situation. Just ask a policeman, believe me, they know more about that than the rest of us.

And as much as we hate to resort to it, sometimes you just have to get physical and literally drag people away to safety no matter how much it sucks, because the rescuers and the victim may also end up being casualties themselves if they don't evacuate the scene immediately.

And as much as anybody in this world including myself, would have loved to have been able to say something to console this poor child whose father had just been murdered in front of her, and then gently urge her to come with us just like Takashi was doing, there was just no time for that, as Shizuka started screaming for us to hurry.

And boy, do I mean **scream.**

* * *

"**HURRY UP! HURRY UP! HURRY UP!"** Shizuka kept screaming hysterically, over and over again, as the Humvee began to rock back and forth with the weight of all the Infected pushing on it.

Boy, did she have a great pair of lungs to be able to scream like that.

Thought I was referring to something else when I mentioned Shizuka's lungs didn't you?

Take it easy fanboy, this ain't **that** kind of story.

* * *

And as if that and the noise from all the pounding on the vehicle wasn't enough to frighten her, then the unnerving sight of all the grotesque faces of the Infected mere inches away from hers with only a thin tempered glass window separating the nurse from a gruesome death was definitely pushing Shizuka toward hysterics.

No, I didn't blame her for freaking out at all. And from the sound of all the banging on the sides of the Humvee, I was sure her courage must be just barely hanging on by a thread.

And I have to admit, after hearing all that racket, the pucker factor was definitely starting to have a strong effect on me as well.

"I'm sorry baby." I said to the girl as I reached for her and scooped her up in one arm lifting her off the ground kicking and screaming, as I yelled at Takashi to make a run for it.

Things were certainly very grim, but we were almost home free, and just as my crazy plan seemed to have miraculously worked despite the odds against us, fate came back to bite me in the butt once again.

* * *

Life is seldom kind, and sometimes, the best laid plans fall completely flat on their ass as the unexpected always seems to turn up at the most inopportune time.

Richard Marcinko who was the founder of SEAL Team Six, was always very candid in every book I ever read from him about how constantly "Mr. Murphy" of "Murphy's Law" fame would constantly plague him on almost every operation.

And as elite as the guys from "SEAL Six" are, if things could go so horribly wrong for those guys despite the best laid plans from such elite operators, then this little impromptu rescue team didn't stand the proverbial "snowballs chance in hell "of doing this rescue attempt by the seat of our pants the way we were, without something going wrong.

And sure enough, "Mr. Murphy" came up, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Hey Jim, glad to see the rescue is going well, but I think I need to do something to shake things up, if you don't mind."

"Why would you want to do that "Murphy-san?" I replied almost wanting to cry when he finally showed up.

"Everything's going better than I expected, and we're **so very **close to getting away now without getting killed." I whined.

"Well now Jim, it wouldn't be fair of me to screw around with Dick Marcinko, Dennis Chalker and the rest of "The Boys" throughout their entire career and then just let you amateurs get away scot free, now would it?"

"No sir, I guess not." I replied dejectedly.

"Atta boy. Now don't get too upset now. This will only shake things up a little bit."

And the way "Murphy-san" shook things up for me came in the way of a savage bite to my right leg, causing me to cry out in fear and pain.

* * *

It scared the crap out of me as I looked down in horror thinking that one of the Infected lying on the ground had reached up and bitten me, condemning me to a horrible death.

Instead, I looked down to find, not an Infected human enjoying Mexican take-out, but instead, it was that little black and white puppy that had been barking all this time next to the girl that had bitten my leg just above my hiking boot, and absolutely refused to let go.

"SON OF A_" I yelled, relieved and also pissed off at the same time to see that it was only the puppy and not an Infected person. Although, having had an Infected person biting me would have been more dignified and looked a lot less stupid than I must have appeared now.

I tried desperately to shake him off, but that little guy refused to let go no matter how hard I shook, and between him and the little girl still screaming her head off and kicking and scratching my arm, I was thinking about just leaving the both of them there.

I know, I know, we **did** come out here to save her, and we went through a** hell** of a lot of effort to rescue her, and not to mention that it wouldn't be **right **to leave her and her dog behind, yada,yada,yada.

C'mon, you guys know I was only kidding.

* * *

And so with a screaming, kicking, girl clutched in my left arm, and a growling, biting puppy tearing into my right leg, I then walked-shuffled, skipped, shuffled-walked, skipped, skipped, back to the Humvee and got ready to toss both of them in, and trying hard not to do it out of frustration.

Ya know Murphy-san, if you were gonna screw things up for me; you could have at least let me retain a small shred of dignity, at the very least.

I seriously hoped that there wasn't a military drone recording any of this fiasco. I'd have been laughed at by the entire Japanese Military, not to mention being laughed **out** of the PMC community once word had gotten around.

And just when I thought things couldn't get any more worse or any more stupid for that matter, Murphy-san came up one more time and shook things up again by having our way out blocked by a couple of Infected that had dragged themselves under the chassis of the Humvee and were now trying to claw at us from underneath the vehicle, effectively blocking our only way into the Humvee.

With the girl screaming in my left arm, the puppy biting my right leg, Shizuka screaming her head off hysterically for me to hurry, and Takashi screaming just as hysterically with her, and about half of the city banging and moaning all along the Humvee, and **now,** the unwelcome presence of the two Infected on the ground blocking my path,….well folks, I'd had just about enough.

I roared as loud as I could as I lifted the muzzle of my carbine up and opened fire, one-handed, on the Infected at my feet and shot them to pieces, splashing blood, bits of flesh, teeth, and whatever other body parts in all directions.

Immediately, the little girl stopped kicking and screaming at the noise from the gunfire and even the puppy also stopped biting my leg and shrank back from me.

I then dropped my carbine letting it hang by its sling as I reached down and grabbed the puppy by the scruff of its neck and tossed both him and the little girl into the interior of the Humvee and then jumped in after them as well, slamming the door shut behind me as Shizuka put the Humvee into gear.

My treating the girl and her dog so roughly wasn't going to earn me any brownie points with them, but at least they were safe now.

Well, not really.

* * *

"**GO! GO! GO!"** I roared, as Shizuka slammed on the accelerator and we lurched forward about two feet and then almost came to a halt and then began moving **very** slowly, prevented from breaking completely free because we were being held down by the weight of all the Infected pressing in on us.

We were still moving albeit at a crawl, because of the combined weight of all the Infected as well as the force of their constantly pressing in on us from all directions. A diesel engine has a lot of power behind it once you get moving, but not a lot of acceleration, the "giddy-up and go" we needed so desperately right now.

And so pushing ourselves through the mass of flesh surrounding us was unnervingly slow, as if we were trying to push through mud. Still, our vehicle was a military four-wheel drive vehicle, so it was only a matter of getting some forward momentum and we would then soon be clear of the Infected.

Even knowing this tidbit of knowledge did little to put Shizuka's mind at ease though.

And as hysterical as she was now, as soon as we **were** clear, there would be no stopping her from driving full speed ahead all the way to the ocean to get away from here.

But at least she would be going forward though.

And now you understand why I drove backwards over here in the first place.

* * *

"**WE"RE NOT MOVING!"** Shizuka screamed shrilly, the panic starting to overwhelm her and starting to affect me too for that matter, as I jumped out of the front seat and pushed the little girl and the puppy into Takashi's lap as I crawled over to the back of the Humvee and opened the roof hatch and stood up.

And as I looked over the huge crowd of Infected all around us, I realized just how serious our situation really was and just how much Takashi and I had both seriously underestimated how quickly the slow-moving Infected would swarm over us. The outcome of his bike stunt would have been tragic indeed.

Shizuka was right to be screaming so hysterically. And if she could have seen the view that was before me right now, she probably would have fainted dead away.

And now I was **really** beginning to wish that this thing had a .50 cal mounted on it. Although I wouldn't have been able to depress the muzzle low enough to open fire on the Infected clawing at the Humvee anyway.

Still, it would have been nice to have.

"**TAKASHI!"** I roared. **"PASS ME THE SHOTGUN! HURRY!"**

I felt Takashi slap the shotgun against my leg as I reached down and grabbed it and then pointed the muzzle at the Infected standing in the front of the Humvee as I opened fire.

* * *

As much as Hollywood loves to picture it that way, a shotgun is **not** a howitzer. Shotguns just do not mow down huge throngs of enemy personnel with one blast, and neither do people go flying through the air after being hit by a round fired from one like you see in the movies. Although I admit, right now that would be so awesome if it were true.

Still, despite the Hollywood myth, I was taking out two Infected at a time with each blast which was still pretty good, I thought.

And when I finally ran dry, I dropped the empty shotgun back down through the hatch and switched back to my carbine and began picking them off as fast as I could as we started to finally gain some forward momentum. It was still unnervingly slow though, and the sounds of bones snapping under our wheels made me wince each time I heard a wet snap.

Takashi was beside himself trying to keep from freaking out as the window next to him threatened to shatter under the force of the Infected on the other side that continued to pound on it with their hands, streaking the glass with blood from their open wounds. Adding to his terror was the grotesque view of their faces pressed against the glass, mere inches from his own.

He desperately wanted to crawl over to the other side of the Humvee as far away as he could from the horrific sight, but the legs of the American standing in the hatchway and the fuel container lying on the floor on that side of the vehicle prevented him from occupying that spot.

Adding even more to his growing hysteria was the sound of the little girl screaming at the top of her lungs in fear, clutching him desperately as if she wanted to crawl inside him just to get away from the horror around them trying desperately to get in, as he tried as hard as he could to comfort her despite the nightmarish sounds going on around them.

Takashi's efforts to calm the child down ceased immediately though, as his ears picking up a sound that caused Shizuka and himself to become completely unglued. And the panic that they had been holding back, finally overcame them.

* * *

"**JIMU-SAN! DO SOMETHING! HURRY!"** Takashi and Shizuka screamed over the sound of all the noise from the Infected and the roar of the gunfire, as they both reacted in terror from the sound of a sharp crack coming from one of the windows.

Things were seriously getting ugly here I thought, as I heard Takashi and Shizuka screaming like I'd never heard them scream before as I kept on desperately shooting until the first magazine went dry. I then changed to the next one and kept on firing as fast as I could as the front of the Humvee unexpectedly rose high in the air as Shizuka had suddenly floored the accelerator in her panic, and drove us over the pile of Infected I had shot that were lying on the road.

Evidently, I had managed to knock down enough of them so that we were finally able to move forward with more ease and make some headway at last, but it caught me completely off guard as I struggled to keep my balance from her desperate maneuver and tried to keep from tumbling out of the hatch from her panicked driving.

And as we moved forward, the most horrible noise imaginable reached my ears as we lurched over the pile of Infected and then began swinging from side to side violently as the tires kept slipping, trying to get traction on the city street that was very slick with a thick layer of pulverized flesh and blood.

The vehicle was rocking** very** violently as Shizuka tried everything she could to get us clear, as I was almost flung out of the roof hatch again from the violent shaking of the vehicle. And then, after a couple more stomach-wrenching jolts, we were finally clear.

Shizuka then slammed on the accelerator once again as we screamed down the street at high speed. The panic had gotten the best of her, and as much as I sympathized, I needed to get her to get a grip quick because we needed to stop now before she decided to drive clear across Japan as freaked out as she was.

And as soon as we were about 100 feet away from the pile of Infected and in the clear, I started pounding my hand on the roof of the Humvee trying to get her to stop as I heard Shizuka scream in terror again, probably because my banging on the roof so suddenly and forcefully had spooked her.

* * *

"**DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT, YOU BAKAAAA!"** Shizuka screamed out of a mixture of fear and anger from the sound of it.

"SHIZUKA! STOP THE TRUCK!" I yelled as she kept going at full speed.

"**WHYYYY?!"** She screamed, her nerves obviously shot as the Humvee still showed no sign of slowing down either.

Which is exactly what I expected would happen after we had performed our rescue. And again, was one of the reasons why I drove backwards over here in the first place.

"**JUST DO IT, WILL YOU?!"** I roared as she finally slammed on the brakes and practically ejected me out of the hatch from the momentum.

Not feeling quite so steady anymore myself, I dropped down through the hatch and then threw open the right passenger door as the little girl sitting in Takashi's lap stared at me frightened and still crying as I grabbed the jerry can full of fuel, and the road flares from the floor of the Humvee.

I still needed for them to get away as fast as they could, but after seeing her scared little face I couldn't help myself and quickly tried to offer a few consoling words.

"It's okay sweetie, the "bad" people are gone now. "Big brother Takashi" and "Auntie Shizuka" are going to take good care of you, okay?" I said, trying to be gentle and also trying to show her I really was a nice guy and not the crazed maniac that I probably appeared to be.

She probably couldn't understand a word I said, but I thought I'd say something to help calm her down. After all, I didn't want her being frightened of me all the time thinking that I was some sort of crazed ogre when I got back to the condo.

**If**, I got back that is.

* * *

"Shizuka!" I yelled. "Drive on back to the condo, and get the kids to load this thing up in case we have to leave in a hurry! **GO!"**

"**What are you doing?!"** Shizuka yelled. **"Are you crazy?!"**

This poor woman was going to need some **serious **therapy after this was over. Actually, all of us were probably gonna need to see a shrink, if we survived this thing at all.

I know I desperately wanted to hit a bottle of whiskey after this was over, and I don't even drink.

Tonight would have been a great reason to start though.

"Jimu-san! Don't do this!" Takashi yelled. "It's too dangerous!"

Boy, was **that** ever an understatement.

* * *

"I'll be back in a minute!" I yelled. I'm just gonna see if I can slow them down! Now quit arguing and **HAUL ASS OUT OF HERE! NOW!"**

I slammed the door shut as Shizuka looked back at me with a worried look on her face, and then reluctantly stepped on the accelerator and took off as I popped off the cap on the jerry can and splashed diesel fuel all over the road. I then laid the can out in the middle of the road, still spilling fuel from its open top, and then stepped away from it as the Infected slowly shuffled towards me.

For some strange reason, as I watched the large crowd of Infected shuffling toward me, the theme song from an old Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" popped into my head.

It was the scene where the huge doomsday device shows up and seems ready to swallow the U.S.S. Enterprise whole as it gives chase.

Yeah I know, I sure picked one hell of a time to get nostalgic.

And as I gazed upon the large crowd of hungry, moaning human piranha coming towards me, I couldn't help but feel really stupid for sending the Humvee off down the road while I stood here alone like a worm on a hook waiting for all of them to get closer.

"I didn't see this crap in "BACKDRAFT." I muttered, as I ignited the flare and tossed it in the road as about thirty of the Infected stepped into the large puddle of diesel fuel.

* * *

Gasoline is a very volatile fuel that will ignite at the slightest spark. Diesel however, has a higher flash point though, and a spark won't set it off, but when you use a hot enough flame, as in this case a road flare, it will cook off then, and it burns for quite a while, as the fuel I spilled all over the street ignited and began to consume the Infected shuffling about in it.

And after a few moments, I then began to walk away from the horrible scene of burning figures twitching in the flames and the loud moans of the Infected starting to rise in pitch. They weren't screaming, thank goodness, but the sound was still extremely hard on the ears anyway.

But surprisingly enough, the human bonfire had worked as the Infected seemed to come to a complete stop due to the burning pile of bodies that was obstructing their ability to surge forward.

The plan to emulate the Infected as a stalling maneuver had been a desperate one, and the sight and the smell was going to be horrible for anyone hiding in their homes nearby. But for us at least, **we** were safe from being attacked from this side of the road.

For now, anyway.

* * *

As I walked up the street back to the condo, almost everyone was out in the street waiting for me, their faces betraying the worry and fear that they were feeling as I walked up to them. And as I re-joined them, all of the girls came up and hugged me, to my surprise.

Each of them seemed to be genuinely happy that I was back even though despite my warning, Rei and Saeko were standing out in the open just as scantily dressed as they were before, either out of defiance or just because they had been watching our crazy rescue and just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Fortunately for them, I was only bluffing about punishing them for walking around half-naked anyway, and even if I had been serious, I was way too fried right now to spank them both.

I'd just let their parents know about their choice of wardrobe when we met up with them, and recommend they be grounded for life or something like that.

"Everyone, ok?" I asked. "How's Shizuka and the little girl doing?"

"Everyone's fine, sort of." Takashi replied. "Marikawa-sensei is inside with Alice-chan trying to calm her down. They're both ok, but they're still **very** shaken up after what we just went through."

"So her name's Alice, huh?" I said as I looked towards the condo.

"Hai, Maresato, Alice." Kouta replied, still carrying the sniper rifle he'd found.

"Yeah, I don't blame them for being shaken up still." I said walking up towards the gate. "That was a **lot** hairier than I thought it would be."

"How are you holding up?" I asked Takashi, looking carefully at his facial expression. I was doing my best to keep it together for the sake of others. But Takashi was still young, and I wanted to make sure he wasn't feeling overwhelmed by everything that had just happened and needed to talk about it.

Takashi was a real trooper though.

* * *

"I'd rather not go through something like that again, but otherwise I'm fine." Takashi said with a grin.

"Do you think the fire will hold them back?" Saya asked nervously, looking at the burning pile of Infected still smoking up the street.

"At least for a while anyway." I replied, the fatigue really starting to hit me now. "We still need to be ready to leave just in case. Is the Humvee still working okay?"

"Hai." Rei said, nodding her head. "And as soon as Marikawa-sensei drove back, we loaded all our things in the trunk."

"We also hosed off all the blood on it as well." Takashi said, looking a little green.

Yikes, I can only imagine how nasty that job had been.

"Was there any damage to the vehicle?" I asked Takashi. I still intended to inspect it myself, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

"There were a few dents on it and the rear lights are broken, but that's all." Kouta replied.

The American nodded his head and kept watch on the smoldering pile down the road.

"That's fine. Getting a ticket for a broken taillight is the least of our concerns, neh." He said laughing.

* * *

"Jimu-san? I forgot to mention, I'm afraid our clothes are still washing." Rei said apologetically. "I'm sorry. I hope you're not upset."

"Don't worry about that." I said chuckling.

"But unless you and Saeko-chan really want to keep giving the guys a free show, I'd hurry up and put something on as soon as possible." I said chuckling as Rei and Saeko blushed slightly especially after noticing that the boys were eye-balling them pretty closely.

"Oh, by the way, how about my pack?" I asked, remembering that I had left it in the other condo when I jumped the railing over on their side. "Did ya'll happen to grab it too, by any chance?"

"Hai." Rei replied. "It was much too heavy for Takagi-san and I to carry it, so Busujima-sempai helped us bring it down."

"Thanks girls." I replied, still staring at the bonfire down the street. "Sorry for the trouble. Hopefully we won't need to leave right away after all, and we can all get some rest."

"By the way, good job, all of you." I said, rubbing my eyes trying to rub the sleepiness out of them.

I wanted to sack out as soon as possible, just like everyone else did, I'm sure. But before we could all turn in, I wanted to have a serious discussion with Takashi and Saeko first before we all went to sleep, and I really didn't want the others to overhear.

But a part of me still wanted to see what Takashi and Saeko had learned since that first day in their teacher's faculty room back at the high school, and if anything I had taught them was beginning to stick with them.

"Go ahead and head inside everyone. I'm going to stay out here for a while longer and keep an eye out just in case any of our friends decide to head down this way." The American said tiredly, still rubbing his eyes.

"What do you want us to do in the meantime?" Takashi asked.

"Well, ya'll guys are still in charge, so what do you think we should do?" The American replied as he smiled weakly, obviously physically and mentally exhausted.

"Saeko?" Takashi said looking at her. "What do you think?"

"We really should check on Marikawa-sensei and Alice-chan." Saeko replied. "Then we should take turns standing guard until morning and then depart at first light."

"What do you think, Jimu-san?" Saeko asked.

"I think our lives are in great hands." I replied with a smile, glad that they had been listening and also learning from my advice.

But there was still an important lesson or two that they still needed to learn.

* * *

"Takashi, do me a favor and put someone in charge for now and have everyone go inside and make sure Shizuka and our new guest are all right, and keep them company." I said as I looked at him. "I want to talk to you and Saeko for a moment first before we head in."

"And then after we re-join them let's have everyone find a comfy spot and grab some sleep." I added.

"We still might have to leave in a hurry, but if not, then we also have a long day ahead of us, so it's best that everyone get as much rest as they can."

I turned back around to face Takashi and clapped him on the shoulder.

"By the way, you did good, son." I said smiling. "You kept your cool for the most part, you also kept everyone together, and everyone is back safe, great job, Takashi." I said as the teen smiled bashfully, a little embarrassed at being praised, I guess.

"Kouta, you too buddy. That was really an awesome shot." I said to the boy who was practically beaming from my praise.

"Hirano." Takashi said, motioning to Kouta. "Would you please take over until we return?"

"Hai." Kouta replied as Saya made a sour face.

"Jimu-san." Saeko's said behind me, the tone of her voice serious. I'm sure despite the fact we were being civil right now, I was still very sure that she was still at least a little steamed about earlier. "Could I speak with you privately, please?"

"Actually, I'd like to speak with **both** of you privately Saeko-chan. "I said, as I looked up the street again checking to see if any of the Infected were shuffling our way and relieved to see none coming down the street even though the flames had died down significantly.

Instead of leaving though, everyone seemed intent on sticking around and observing whatever discussion I wanted to have with the two teens, even though I had distinctly said that I wanted to have a "private" discussion with them.

Some people just can't take a hint, I guess.

* * *

"Ok, guys. It's way past your curfew. Off to bed now, all of you." I said, shooing them away.

All of them looked at me as if I were nuts.

"Curfew?" I heard Rei and Saya say out loud.

"Yup, curfew. Now, **git**." I said pointing toward the gate.

"Let's go everyone." Kouta ordered, as he motioned the rest towards the open gate. Finally taking the hint, the other teens headed for the condo as Kouta bowed politely to me and then followed the others.

"Walk with me, guys." The American said to Saeko and Takashi as he walked towards the Humvee after the teens had disappeared behind the gate.

* * *

The teens silently walked behind the man as he walked to the rear of the Humvee and opened the rear hatch. He then began rummaging through the piles of personal belongings lying inside until he found his pack underneath.

He then separated his pack from the rest of the belongings and then unzipped a compartment pulling out a clear plastic pouch.

After opening the waterproof seal of the plastic pouch, he pulled out a tan-colored cloth and returned the pouch to the same compartment of his pack and zipped it closed, after which he then shut the rear hatch of the Humvee.

He then looked directly at Saeko still holding the cloth in his hand as he unfolded it, revealing that it was actually a large tan-colored tee shirt. He then took a step towards Saeko, and standing in front of her, he placed it over her head, and as her head came through the collar portion, the American then let the shirt fall over her.

"I can't have my favorite niece catching cold now, can I?" He said as Saeko looked up at him.

"Niece?" Saeko said a puzzled look on her face, as she pulled her long hair through the collar and let it hang.

"Well, when I'm not making you mad at me all the time, you did call me "uncle" a few times." I replied. "Only fair that I should call you my" favorite niece" now wouldn't it?"

"Not to mention your only one, correct? Saeko said with a slight smirk.

"True." The American replied with a grin. "But you're still my favorite, nonetheless."

The shirt was way too large for Saeko's small frame and Takashi began to snicker at the sight. The man was also amused at how tiny she looked wearing the shirt and began to chuckle as well, as Saeko giggled despite herself.

"It looks like you're wearing a serape." I said chuckling at seeing my shirt hanging off Saeko like a blanket.

"What's a serape?" She asked.

"It's a Mexican blanket that is traditionally worn as a poncho during winter." I explained. "And I'm afraid my shirt does indeed look like a blanket on you."

Of course, considering what little clothing she was wearing, a blanket was probably exactly what she needed right now.

* * *

"Jimu-san, is there something wrong?" Takashi asked, probably confused by my wanting to speak to them alone.

"I won't say that anything is wrong guys, but I think we need to get a couple of things settled before we join the others. But before we start talking, let's get out of the street first." I said as I headed for the gate, motioning for them to follow.

After we had walked through the gate and secured it behind us, I then led the teens up the small flight of stairs towards the railing that we had all jumped off of earlier. I still wanted to keep watch over the street for a while longer, but I also wanted to discuss a couple of things with the teens before bed, and I'm sure that the teens had something they wished to say as well, especially Saeko.

"I have a couple things that I'm seriously concerned about guys." I began. "But I'm not here to chew you out if that's what has you worried."

"But before I begin, I'm going to let you go ahead and speak first if you have anything to say, because I can tell that there's something on your minds and I want to get it straightened out before we go to bed."

I could tell Sako wanted to speak to me badly, but respectfully, she let Takashi speak first.

Takashi hesitated for a moment and then looked up at me as he spoke.

"Jimu-san, why have you been avoiding us after you returned with the others? Takashi asked a look of concern on his face. "It seems like you're keeping a lot to yourself right now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, a little confused as to what exactly was worrying all of them.

"You didn't tell any of us what happened when those men tried to attack us earlier." Saeko replied.

"And we can tell that something's bothering you too, Jimu-san. Why won't you talk to us?"

I've never known a teenager to offer themselves up so willingly to help a troubled adult when an adult is experiencing certain problems. Not that teenagers aren't capable of being so kind and considerate, it's just that normally in the real world, it's usually the other way around, with the adult offering to help a troubled teen. Not vice-versa.

I was really growing fond of these teenagers. Their parents would be so proud to know about what great kids they had raised.

"The only thing I'm keeping from you are some personal thoughts and worries that none of you needs to be concerned about, guys." The American replied gently.

"The two of you are the leaders of this group, and you're doing a good job, and the way you guys are showing that you still care about the welfare of others is a great quality that I'm really glad to see in both of you."

"But there are some things you do not need to know because they will only serve to cause you more apprehension that right now, you really do not need." I said, trying to be as polite as possible.

* * *

I wasn't trying to turn down their act of kindness by refusing to speak to them about my troubles. But there really was no need for them to know about my personal conflicts. We honestly had enough problems without the both of them trying to worry about me.

And as far as telling them about my killing those men, well, that had been a necessary evil, and I saw no reason to discuss it openly with them. I never talked about some of the horrors I had seen as a Paramedic and as a Firefighter, and I was definitely not going to discuss my having to kill as a PMC, especially to children.

It had to be done, and the last thing I wanted to do was sound like I was bragging about it. Better to just not discuss it at all. It would have served no purpose.

And right now, there was another problem to tackle before I could voice my own concerns as I turned to look at Saeko, who right now was looking at me as if she could bite a nail in two.

* * *

"Saeko-chan, do you have something you wish to say?" I asked, and from the look on her face, I could tell she was thinking it, even if she didn't say it out loud.

"Duh."

That was a stupid question, because I could see the from the obvious look in her eyes, exactly what Saeko was going to talk about before I even asked her.

"Jimu-san, with all due respect, I do not appreciate the way you treated me like a child earlier." Saeko said, the expression on her face tense, although she was being extremely polite.

"There was no reason for you to treat me the way you did earlier, even if what you said was true that my place was here taking command of the others. You did not have to humiliate me like you did." She continued.

I looked at her long and hard for a moment before I spoke.

"How old are you guys?" I asked them both.

"Seventeen." Takashi replied.

"Eighteen." Saeko said.

'I'm fourty-four." The American replied. "And at that age, it's very easy for me to look upon anyone younger than me as "kids" including you two."

"But believe it or not, I'm really very impressed with the two of you, and you have really earned my sincerest respect, because the two of you are a lot smarter and a lot more mature than most teens I've ever met. And that's why I've confided in you a lot and more importantly, trusted the both of you, more so than any of the others in our little group."

"But the fact remains, all of you are still **very **young. And as smart and mature as you are, you still have **much** to learn."

"Be that as it may though, one thing I am not is perfect. I make mistakes the same as everyone else, and sometimes when I screw up, I screw up royally."

"But I hope both of you will understand one day, why exactly I've had to say and do a lot of the things I've done."

"I do not like to be harsh to anyone." I said to Saeko as I looked into her eyes. "And just so you know, I'm not in the habit of humiliating people either."

"I admit I went overboard and went all "Daddy Dearest" on you earlier when I saw what you were wearing Saeko-chan. Or should I say, what you **weren't** wearing, sweetie."

I could see Saeko blush a little at that.

* * *

"And scolding you as if you were my daughter and dragging you back through the gate and spanking your butt, may have not been the best way to go about things." I admitted, which caused her to blush even more.

"And obviously, I know that you really are not my daughter, nor are any of you my children that I can tell you anything or force you to listen to me or obey me when I tell you to do something."

"But at the time, you left me little choice but to be forceful with you Saeko-chan when you refused to stay behind with the others like I told you to. And I really had no time to argue with you. And to be honest, the way I reacted…..well, I just couldn't help myself."

Saeko opened her mouth to protest, but I held up my hand so that I could finish.

"The reason I couldn't help myself Saeko-chan for treating you like a child was because **I do** think of you as my daughter, and because of that I treated you as if you were." I said looking at the ground for a moment before I looked back into her eyes.

"And I'm sorry I went too far, but at the time, you were making things harder for me and I reacted the same way as if you were my child that was arguing with me in the middle of a crisis and I had to put my foot down."

"You're right, you're not a child." I said, continuing. "You're a mature young woman, and a brave warrior, and to be honest, I would have loved to have had you with us on that rescue earlier."

"And I also know how much you wanted to help us, and I know just how hard it was for you to be told to stay behind." I said as I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"But that is one of the demands of being in a position of responsibility over the lives of others, is that it is never about what **you** want. It is about what the other people in your care **need** from you."

"And sometimes what's needed is **not** the Warrior ready to charge into battle, but instead, what is needed is the Wise Leader who will take over and do whatever it takes to take care of the people in his care."

Saeko looked at me and I could see the remaining anger in her eyes begin to melt away as my words begin to hit home.

"You're not my children, even though I think of you all as my own." I continued. "And I'm going to say or do things that may piss you off every now and then. But understand something, everything I'm doing, I'm doing for **your **benefit, not mine."

"But if you force me to get tough with you, believe me I will, even though I take no pleasure in it."

Saeko nodded her head as Takashi did also, even though they weren't too happy about what I had just said.

* * *

But honestly, there was no "I'm an adult, you're the child, so shut up." mentality here. I wasn't perfect as a mentor, and they knew it, and I even admitted it. But everything that I was doing was because I cared about them and wanted to help them. And they needed to help me, to help them. Even if I had to be firm and treat them like children sometimes, whether they liked it or not.

Case closed.

As Richard Marcinko always said. "You don't have to like it. You just gotta do it."

And now the time came to voice my own concerns.

"And now that we've discussed the things that were troubling you guys. I'd like to discuss something about the way ya'll handled this latest crisis." I said as I looked at them both squarely in the eye although I kept my voice friendly.

"Now again, this is a discussion and not a chewing out guys." I said as I saw the teens visibly tense up, expecting me to slam them with a tirade of criticisms, or something like that. "So don't feel like I'm jumping on your case, because I'm not."

"Takashi." I said looking at him. "You're trying to save that little girl all by yourself was very noble and I'm very proud of you for wanting to try and help her."

"But the problem is, the way that you went about trying to rescue her initially would have ended up in both you and her getting killed, not to mention one or more of us getting hurt or killed trying to rescue you. You understand that now, right?"

Takashi hung his head and I quickly tried to find the words that would not crush this kid's desire to take the initiative if ever a crisis occurred again. He was a smart kid and had a lot of heart, but he just needed to use his head more, and I wanted him to understand that. But I had to use my words very carefully, because sometimes the things we adults say can easily crush a person, rather than encourage them.

"Look son, your heart was in the right place." I said to Takashi." But all I'm asking is that you think more before you leap. Or next time, you or someone else is going to get hurt or killed."

"So from now on, whenever you get the urge to do something…"

"**DON'T**,….. right?' Takashi interrupted, with a crestfallen look.

"I wasn't going to say that." I replied and gave him another Mark Harmon "NCIS" smack on the back of his head. "Quit interrupting me and listen."

Takashi rubbed his head and looked at me annoyed.

"I was going to say, "Work smarter, not harder." I replied smirking at him. "That Evil Kneivel stunt you were about to pull a while ago would have been a one way ticket for you if I hadn't stopped you, don't you think?"

"Hai." Takashi replied grudgingly after a few moments of silence. I'm sure he would never forget** that** particular experience for as long as he lived.

"And as for you." I said looking at Saeko. "When bad things are happening, it is not the time to start arguing or trying to do things on your own just because you don't agree with what you're being told."

"This rescue we just performed could have easily gone the other way, and none of us could have survived. And if that had happened, what would the others do now without anyone to lead them?" I said looking Saeko in the eye.

"All I ask of you both is that use your heads **first** before you act, that's all."

"We cannot afford to be going through this silliness every time a crisis occurs, understand?

"Hai." They both replied, looking as dejected as can be.

* * *

"Quit looking so down-hearted guys. This was a discussion, not a chewing out, ok?" I said looking at them as they both acted as if I had just disowned them.

In truth, it had kinda been a chewing out even though that really wasn't the intention actually, although the kids were now acting as if I had just torn them a new one.

"Hai." They replied again, a little less down in the mouth.

Sheesh, these kids really got their feelings hurt easily didn't they?

"You know I love ya, right?" I said as I put my arms around them and held them close.

That got them laughing finally, as I squeezed them both.

The point was made, the hatchet was buried, and now we were at peace again.

Until the next fiasco, that is.

* * *

"All right, you guys. Go ahead and head inside. I'll be joining ya'll in a little bit."

"Can we stay out here with you for a while?" Saeko and Takashi asked, evidently wishing to socialize a bit more before bed.

However, there was still one more lesson I wanted them to learn.

"I would love the company actually." I replied. "But I'm only going to be out here for a little while longer just to make sure nothing starts heading our way."

"But before I head in I would greatly appreciate you both doing a big favor for me."

"What is it?" Takashi asked.

"Well, you know as I do, that here are a couple of very frightened women inside who have gone through the most horrible ordeal of their lives." I said looking into their eyes.

"And since you were there too Takashi, you know how crazy things really got out there for a while. The point is, they'll need whatever care, comfort, and support we can give them. So I would greatly appreciate it if both of you would go inside and see what ya'll can do to help them, until I return."

Takashi and Saeko looked at each other a little nervously. They were both quick to dive into danger, but the humanitarian part of being responsible for the lives of others made them a little uncomfortable.

It's a common problem in the newer generations of Fire, EMS, and Police personnel. Many of the younger folks are quick to respond to a call, quick to start treating wounds or put out a fire or subdue a criminal. But the part of the job that calls for compassion and comfort is almost an alien concept to **some **of them.

As I said before, we can't always offer words of comfort or a comforting embrace all the time.

But when you can, why don't you?

* * *

This was the last lesson I wanted these two to learn, just in case something did happen, and they were left all alone in command of the others. I wanted to be sure that what they did was not just help everyone try to **survive**, but really, to **take care** of each other.

So much had happened in just the past two days that it was indeed a miracle that any of us had survived any of it the way we had. But as this Contagion kept spreading uncontrolled, and people began to come apart at the seams, the chances were good that things were going to get so bad, that not all of us might survive it.

Today, we were all alive.

Tomorrow, that might not be the case. And if something happened to me tomorrow, I wanted to be sure to have this talk with Saeko and Takashi before it was too late.

"Part of being in Command you two, is seeing to every need of the people in your care, and not just making sure they're safe and well fed." I explained.

"Besides being able to fight, hide, and survive. You need to be able to deal with the emotional needs of everyone as well. Because if you don't, people will start to fall apart on you, and then everything goes to hell after that." I said looking into their eyes as I could see my words were starting to overwhelm them a bit.

"Don't worry; it's not all on you right now." I said as I smiled at them. "I'll be inside in a moment and check on Shizuka and Alice myself. Just see what you can do for them until I get there, okay?"

Still a little apprehensive, the two teens nodded and headed inside. And as they left, I paused to look down the street again, for any signs that any of the Infected were still determined to head up this way and block our escape route.

And after ten more minutes of watching the street with no more stragglers shuffling around even after the fire had finally burned itself out, I then waited another fifteen minutes before I headed for the door myself.

I wasn't shirking my responsibility on the teens by taking so much time, but I was giving them time to try to work the situation out by themselves before I stepped in.

And as far as keeping an eye out for danger the rest of the night, I was still going to keep watch on the street, but there was no need for me to be standing on the street anymore I thought, as I opened the door and walked in.

As the American walked up to the door and disappeared through it, unseen eyes that were glued to their high definition monitors sitting many miles away, watched him as he disappeared from their view.

* * *

Thousands of feet above the tiny group of refugees, the unmanned drone cruised silently in a large circling pattern, its high tech cameras recording every moment of the rescue of the child earlier, as well as the actions of the small band of survivors afterwards. The drone recorded all of the images in Infra-red, Starlight, as well as in normal view to those same watching eyes many miles away.

And as it continued its slow orbit, it recorded a wealth of information for the people watching the images being sent back to the monitors in the Command Center.

The drone recorded every detail of the people seeking shelter in the complex and especially their current location that was now the primary reason for its surveillance.

With its advanced technology it recorded every detail of the building, its surroundings, terrain, and the street routes that would provide both ingress and egress, as well as the movements of all people in the area, both living and Infected.

A wealth of information was gathered and the intelligence intensely studied as the drone finally completed its current mission, and then made a left banked turn headed towards the heart of Tokonosu City.

* * *

As I walked through the door, the teens were still gathered around Shizuka and the young girl Alice, both of them with their eyes reddened and their cheeks very puffy from crying, and after what they had just been through, I couldn't blame them. That had been way too close, and it would still be awhile before they would be over it anytime soon.

And as I walked up to the table, the little girl tightened her grip around Shizuka and stared at me wide-eyed as I walked into the light.

"Shizuka, how are ya, hon?" I asked as I walked up and patted her shoulder, while she nodded her head in response that she was OK, but was still too emotional to want to talk.

"How about you, sweetie?" I said looking at the little girl as I bent down on one knee. "You doing, okay?"

Alice continued to look at me with extreme fright, as her eyes drifted from my face down to my carbine, still too frightened of me to answer.

"O genki, desu ka?" I said in Japanese, hoping that it was just a matter of translation.

Nope. She didn't reply at all which proved to me that she was just scared to death of the presence of me and my carbine and not because she hadn't understood me.

That's a problem I've had all my life actually. Most people take one look at me and think I'm some sort of evil giant out to bash their heads in. And of course, children take one look at me and run crying to their teacher whenever my Engine Company went to visit any of the schools during Fire Prevention Week.

Of course, my large frame and serious appearance does help keep me from getting mugged, which is nice.

So after being surrounded by all sorts of monsters trying to kill her, and seeing one really big looking ogre with a rifle in front of her, this poor thing was understandably very scared of my presence as well.

Time to see if I could break the ice somehow.

* * *

"Well, guess I'll have to eat this candy all by myself, then." I said as I pulled back the retractable stock on my carbine and opened one of the storage tubes built into it.

There are few things in this world that will grab a child's attention faster than the words "candy" or "toy".

Say any one of those two words and even the most frightened child will begin to come around just to see if they can get their hands on whatever it is you have.

"Candy?" Saya asked as she watched me pop the top off one of the two storage tubes that were built into the stock of my carbine.

See what I mean?

* * *

I guess Saya was still a kid at heart herself, no matter how hard she tried to act like she was better than everyone else.

When I was issued my Mk18, I was given permission to customize it as much as I wanted, so long as it didn't affect its performance.

And one of the things I replaced on it was the stock, which I replaced with an aftermarket Vltor EMOD stock. The Vltor stock has three storage compartments in it compared to the standard SOPMOD stock.

Originally, the storage compartments were meant for storing batteries for the electronic devices that were attached to the carbine.

However, me being the practical person that I am, I used those same storage compartments to carry emergency rations and a couple of survival necessities. In this case, each storage tube held a stick of cinnamon candy in one tube and a buckstick which is a piece of deer jerky wrapped in plastic, in the other.

The third compartment of the stock held a couple of matches, fishing line and hook, and a couple of Band-Aids.

I did that just in case I ever lost all my equipment except for my weapon. That way, I still had a means of keeping alive, at least for a short, while even if all I had was my carbine.

* * *

After I popped the top off the watertight tube, I shook the piece of candy out into my hand as Alice looked up at me as if to say, "Can I have some?"

"You know, I'm kinda old to be eating candy." I said to Alice trying to be friendly. "Maybe someone else would like this candy I have here?" I said looking at her.

"How about you sweetie?" I said as I offered it to her as everyone else watched.

"Alice-chan, go ahead. He won't hurt you." Shizuka said as the little girl looked at her for reassurance.

She then took a few hesitant steps towards me, watching me all the while as she timidly took the candy from my hand.

"Arigato, gozaimasu." The girl named Alice said to me as she put her arm around Shizuka again, still not quite trusting me, but at least she was speaking to me now.

And then she added …"Ojiichan."

Ojiichan. Not "Ojisan" like Saeko had called me before, which stood for "uncle."

She had instead used a different honorific and had called me "Ojiichan".

Grandpa.

Ah well, at least she wasn't as afraid of me as before.

* * *

Of course, that brought a round of laughter from everyone as Rei tittered, and then everyone broke out laughing as I grudgingly chuckled at just being called an "old man" by a little girl I had just shared my emergency food with.

"Har, har, har-dee, har, har." I retorted sarcastically. "Laugh it up guys, you'll see. You'll be my age one day too, you know."

"And what are you laughing at?" I asked Shizuka in fake annoyance. "You're almost my age."

"I AM NOT!" Shizuka said in a huff that had Alice giggling. "I'm only twenty-six!"

"Oh. Well enjoy it." I said winking at Alice. "Because once you hit the big three-oh, it's all downhill from there, and you ain't that far away from it, you know."

Alice laughed out loud as Shizuka threw a wet dish towel at me that someone had been using to wipe down the table with. It caught me full in the face as everyone laughed at our playful banter including Alice, as Shizuka smiled at me, while Alice kept on laughing.

It doesn't take much to comfort someone sometimes, even a little playful banter amongst friends to make someone laugh may be all it takes for someone to forget their pain, at least for a little while anyway.

"Allright everyone." I said seriously." It's best all of us turn in and get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow, so I want all of you to get as much rest as you can."

"By the way, boys. We'll be sleeping here tonight as well." I added.

"What about the other rooms we cleared out?" Takashi asked, probably wondering why we went through all that effort for nothing.

"Tonight's little activities, changes things." I replied. "I want all of you staying close by just in case we have to leave in a hurry. And that being the case, its probably best we all stay in the same condo tonight."

"And it's also probably a good idea for all of you to sleep either in your clothes or at least have them ready nearby, understand?" I said, obviously referring to Rei and Saeko's current lack of dress.

"Where is everyone going to sleep?" Shizuka asked, as Alice still hung on to her, although more out of affection than fear as she licked the cinnamon stick.

"You and Alice-chan can take the bed upstairs." I replied. "The rest of you just pretend you're at a slumber party and find a comfy spot wherever you can. We can grab some extra linen from next door if there are not enough blankets and pillows over here."

"And what about you?" Shizuka asked." Where are you going to sleep?"

"I'll actually be awake a while longer." I replied yawning." But I'll be sleeping next to the window downstairs so I can be able to get up and watch the street every now and then."

* * *

The hour was quite late, and even though everyone had been amped up during the rescue of Alice, the adrenalin rush had died down significantly and everyone was more than eager to hit the sack.

After walking to the condo next door with Kouta and Saya to grab some extra pillows and blankets, we then came back and let everyone grab a set and then try to find a comfortable spot to sleep on around the living room.

As a security precaution, I went out on the balcony to double check the street once more, and after finding it still empty, I re-entered the main bedroom, locking the door behind me, and waited for Shizuka and Alice to come upstairs.

After helping prepare the teens for bed, Shizuka finally came up the stairs with Alice in tow. It was actually quite cute watching how Alice had so easily latched on to Shizuka and was following her everywhere she went.

The little girl had been cleaned up and someone had given her a woman's tee that fit her like a nightgown, almost resembling the same way Saeko looked wearing the shirt that I had given her.

And as she followed Shizuka up the stairs, she held the puppy that we had brought along in one arm while she tightly gripped Shizuka's hand with the other.

As Shizuka walked up to me, I leaned over and spoke softly into her ear.

* * *

"The street's clear, the gates, and all the doors are locked, so you and Alice can sleep securely Shizuka-san." I whispered to her as Alice shyly hid behind her still a little bashful of me.

"I'll be downstairs near the window, so if you need anything, just let me know, okay?" I said as I headed for the stairs. "Oyasumi, Marikawa-sensei."

"Oyasumi nasai, Jimu-san." Shizuka replied.

"Oyasumi, Alice." I said to the little girl as I walked down the stairs.

"Oyasumi, Ojii-chan." Alice replied, as I heard Shizuka giggle.

"Doh." I winced, as I continued on down the stairs, growing more and more depressed with each step.

Geez, I didn't think I was **that** old.

Shizuka led Alice to the bed as the American walked down the stairs, and moved away the covers for her as Alice jumped into bed with the puppy still in her arms.

As Shizuka removed her bathrobe, she then slipped on a nightie she had taken out of a dresser drawer and then settled into bed herself underneath the covers as Alice slid over across the bed and snuggled up against her.

"Shizuka, Oba-chan?" Alice asked timidly. "Is that scary man your friend?"

"Hai, Alice-chan." Shizuka replied." He's a friend. Don't be afraid of him though. He's really very nice."

"He scares me a little, Oba-chan." Alice said yawning, as Shizuka placed her arms around her as Alice fell fast asleep.

"Hai. Sometimes he scares me a little too, Alice-chan." Shizuka thought to herself, as she held the sleeping girl close to her.

Shizuka lay in bed awake for a long while gently stroking the child's hair with her hand, and listened to the sound of the child's gentle breathing while Alice slept.

Soon, the fatigue began to fall over the nurse as well, as she began to feel her own eyelids becoming heavier, and then finally, sleep came to Shizuka Marikawa as well.

The puppy stared at the two women asleep in their bed for a moment and whined when neither of them moved as they peacefully slept. And as he heard their gentle breathing, he then curled up next to the young girl and soon fell fast asleep in the arms of his new mistress.

* * *

The kids didn't waste too much time finding a place to bed down. Although I almost thought there was a confrontation about to brew when Saya selfishly plopped down on the sofa and claimed it for herself before anyone else could.

But as it turns out, everyone was just too tired to fight over it as they all grumbled to themselves and found a spot on the floor and made themselves as comfortable as possible, as I turned off the lights and then walked past the exhausted teens and tossed a pillow and spare blanket on the floor next to the large window facing the street.

I was dead tired, but it was only a few more hours till morning anyway, so I had decided that I would stay up till morning and let the kids get some sleep instead of trying to shake the kids awake so we could all have an equal share of everyone serving on guard duty.

As any parent knows, trying to wake a sleeping teen is like trying to raise the dead, and I was in no mood to fight a major battle to wake them up, only to have them fall asleep later, when they're supposed to be keeping watch.

Besides, I figured I would just nap a bit before we took off in the morning to continue our search for a way across the river.

And maybe while Shizuka drove the Humvee, I could also catch a wink or two as we drove around, so I figured I might as well suck it up for a while longer.

As I tried to make myself comfortable sitting on the floor with my back against the wall, I took a long look out the window at the lights of the city still glowing brightly and tried not to think of the horror that was going on just outside these walls as I thought of the millions of people that would suffer this night around the world including my own family, whom I prayed were still alive and safe somewhere.

And then I began to think of the guys on my team, and hoped that they were doing okay despite everything. They were all professional soldiers with years of experience behind enemy lines, so I was sure that they could handle everything that was going on better than I could. But still, I was worried about my buddies, and I hoped they were all right.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone quietly walking towards, me as I looked up and was surprised to see Saeko standing there, still wearing the tee shirt I had given her like a nightgown.

* * *

"Hey, sweetie." I said as she walked up and sat next to me. "What's the matter? Can't you sleep?"

"No, I'm fine." Saeko replied. "I was just wondering if you, were all right."

"I'm fine honey. Why do you ask?" I asked her, slightly puzzled.

"I was wondering why you didn't want any of us to help you stand guard tonight." Saeko replied staring into my face.

"Oh, I'm fine sweetie." I replied. "I just thought I'd stand watch and let ya'll sleep is all. It might be a long day tomorrow, and we may have to push pretty hard."

"Besides, I have a hard time sleeping anyway, and once all of ya'll wake up in the morning, I'll just take a nap before breakfast, and then maybe another nap as we're driving around tomorrow."

"I'll be fine, so don't worry." I said to Saeko and smiled even though she probably couldn't see my face in the dark anyway.

"Go get some sleep Saeko-chan, it'll be a long day tomorrow." I said yawning.

"I will, but if you don't mind, I'd like to stand watch with you a little while longer." Saeko replied, obviously not convinced that I knew what was best for me.

Saeko may not be my real daughter, but one quality she and I shared was stubbornness, especially when it came to trying to help others and not taking "no" for an answer when someone tried to politely decline.

* * *

"All right then, do me a favor and hand me that pillow and blanket will you sweetie?" I sighed, pointing at the pillow and blanket lying near her.

As Saeko handed them to me, I set them on my left side next to my carbine as Saeko sat next to me on my right.

And as the night wore on we sat there for a while quietly talking to each other as we listened to the sounds of the other teens sleeping in the living room.

We talked about Saeko's father and the rest of her family, and then my own. And we also had an interesting discussion on Budo training, and about the dojo her father was currently training at overseas.

It was a little tough at times to try to carry the conversation though. Not because of fatigue starting to get the best of us, but because we were having a hard time trying to keep from bursting out laughing every time we heard Saya snore.

I swear, for such a tiny little girl of supposedly refined pedigree, she snored louder than any of my brother firefighters ever did in all the years I worked in a firehouse.

If it weren't because everyone was so dead tired, and in a coma-like state right now, I doubt anyone would have tried to stay in the condo and attempt to try to get any sleep with all that noise nearby.

Despite trying to carry a conversation over the roar of the lioness sleeping nearby, Saeko and I had a good time talking with each other and I certainly learned a lot about the young woman sitting next to me.

Eventually though as the night wore on, I noticed Saeko's head beginning to bob, as she began to speak less and less. And after a few more minutes I felt her head against my shoulder. And then a few moments later, I heard her snoring gently.

I waited a little while as she slept, and then quietly reached for the pillow and blanket next to me. I then gently lay Saeko down on the floor with her head resting on the pillow, and then covered her with the blanket.

I imagined Saeko must have been extremely exhausted to not have been stirred even a little bit, by my moving her to the floor. It was understandable though, we had been through a lot, especially the civilians who were not used to seeing such atrocities and tragedy as we had witnessed today. Even after all the things I've seen in my career, the past two days were about the most awful experience that I've ever lived as well.

And as I sat next to her, I couldn't help but smile as I watched the young girl sleeping so peacefully next to me. It was a moment I'd always hoped to have as a father, watching my daughter sleeping peacefully knowing that she was safe and secure with "dad" sitting nearby, watching over her.

And once again, I allowed myself the pleasure of pretending that this beautiful, smart, kind, and stubborn as a mule young girl sleeping peacefully next to me was my own child, as I reached for my carbine and laid it across my lap standing guard while my "family" slept away, dead to the world.

And as I continued my watch, I smiled, listening to the sounds of Saeko gently breathing as she slept. And at the same time, trying hard not to laugh at Saya nearly shaking the windows with her snoring as the night wore on.

* * *

As the first rays of morning began to shine through the window, I sat up and stretched my creaky old bones as I heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs as Shizuka, dressed in a bathrobe, came down and walked around the corner.

She then walked over towards me with Alice holding on tightly to one of Shizuka's hands, while rubbing her sleepy little eyes with the other. And to add to the cuteness of the scene, the puppy we had saved back at the house was hurriedly running down the steps after them, trying hard to catch up.

And as Shizuka walked up, I saw her eyes glance over at Saeko sleeping soundly next to me. And then I watched her smile as she knelt down to talk to me quietly, so as not to wake the sleeping girl.

"Jimu-san, ohayo gozaimasu. Did you get any sleep…..Papa?" Shizuka whispered with a huge smirk on her face after seeing Saeko asleep next to me still dead to the world, as only a teenager can sleep.

"Not a wink, ….Mama." I replied smirking back as Alice buried her face in Shizuka's robe, still very sleepy.

Alice had quickly bonded with her new surrogate mother Shizuka, and refused to leave her side, which is not uncommon with a child that's been the victim of such a horrible tragedy, who then attaches themselves to the first kind person, they feel they can trust.

"I've been too busy making sure there were not going to be any more surprises while everyone slept. But now that your awake, I'm gonna go check the street and make sure everything's all clear, and then take a little nap before breakfast." I said yawning loudly.

"Okay, then." Shizuka replied as Alice buried her face in Shizuka's robe and tried to fall back to sleep while still standing up. "I'm going to wash up and then wake the girls afterwards and get breakfast started, then."

"Alice-chan." Shizuka said looking down at the sleepy-eyed girl. "Why don't you sleep here with Saeko-chan until I make breakfast?"

"Hai, Oba-chan." Alice said sleepily, offering no argument as she lay on the floor with her head on the same pillow next to Saeko as Shizuka covered her with the blanket, and then padded off to the bathroom.

* * *

I yawned as I grabbed my carbine and opened the door leading out into the street, letting the puppy outside as well so he could find a spot to pee.

The morning was eerily still without any sound, whatsoever.

Such stillness was completely alien in a major city like this with no sounds coming out from it. There weren't even the sounds of birds or neighborhood pets at all.

It was as if death had claimed everything in the city, including sound itself.

And as I walked towards the railing, I leaned over and saw the still smoking remains of the Infected I had torched last night.

The road itself was clear of any Infected I noticed, which was good news. So we should be able to depart without a problem once we were done with breakfast.

* * *

"C'mon buddy, let's get back inside." I said to the little puppy that was wagging his tail at me. I've always been a dog lover, and despite the little stinker biting me in the leg last night, I was happy to have him around. He'd be a great early alarm system for us with his barking, and more importantly, he'd be a great comfort for Alice.

I yawned once again and then went back through the door as I saw Saeko had awakened and was already headed to the bathroom, still wearing the over-size tee shirt I had given her to wear.

I locked the door behind me and then lay down on the floor across the wall from Alice and then lay my carbine next to me so I could reach for it instantly at the first sign of trouble.

As I lay my head on top of my arm, I watched the puppy snuggle up to Alice and then lay his head on the pillow next to her and closed his eyes.

I couldn't help but smile at the cute scene and then passed right out myself.

* * *

It felt like I had just fallen asleep when I was suddenly being shaken awake by Takashi who was telling me that my breakfast was ready. I blinked my eyes and tried to clear the cobwebs in my head as I looked at my watch through bleary eyes and saw that in fact, three hours had passed since I had laid my head down.

Everyone had already eaten breakfast earlier, and since they all knew that I'd been awake all night watching over them, they had decided to be nice and just let me sleep a little while longer as I dragged myself to the table, groggy and grumpy.

I was never much of a morning person. And unless coffee was anywhere nearby, none of the people in the room could really expect any improvement anytime soon.

* * *

"Ohayo." I grunted, as I sat in a chair and leaned my carbine against the wall, not really with it just yet and still very stiff and sore from the odd way I had been sleeping.

"Ohayo Jimu-san." Everyone laughed as they watched me looking like something the cat had dragged in. Even little Alice was laughing at me which was a good sign. I was really hoping she wouldn't be afraid of me, especially after last night's adventure in the Humvee.

Even the puppy was barking happily and wagging his tail at me.

"Well, I'm glad ya'll are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ." I grumped. "Ya'll must have slept well."

"Like a baby." Saya said yawning as she stretched. "Even though I was forced to sleep on the sofa."

"Glad to hear it." I said sarcastically, as everyone scowled at Saya.

Shizuka walked out of the kitchen acting all TV mom-like, and placed a plate of delicious-smelling food in front of me as I twisted my neck and back trying to work out the kinks.

Well, at least for **someone** I'm sure, it was a very delicious smelling breakfast.

* * *

Breakfast for me this morning consisted of a bowl of miso soup, steamed rice, pickles and some sort of blackened fish on a plate.

It smelled good I admit, but not exactly what I pictured when Shizuka had said "breakfast."

Of course, not being home in Texas, I really shouldn't have expected my normal breakfast of Tex-Mex breakfast tacos. Or even a more traditional American breakfast of eggs, bacon, and biscuits with a pot of coffee nearby.

Nope, you're not in Texas anymore, "Do-Do."

* * *

"Is there any coffee around by chance?" I asked Shizuka as I stared into the eyeballs of the fish that was staring right back at me from my plate.

"Coffee? No, I'm afraid not." Shizuka replied. "But I do have some fresh tea that I made. Would you like some?"

"Yeah, that'll do." I replied as it seemed that the fish's jaw had suddenly dropped open as if screaming in pain or protest.

Shizuka filled a cup full of steaming hot tea and handed it to me as Rei and Saya left the table and began playing with Alice and the puppy in the living room.

I took a few sips of the tea, trying not to make a sour face at its bland flavor, and also trying to avoid looking at my breakfast especially the part of it that kept looking right back at me.

"Are you not hungry, Jimu-san?" Saeko asked as she sipped her tea.

"Not anymore." I wanted to say as I suddenly imagined the fish starting to sing just like those stupid novelty plastic fish that started singing whenever you walked into the room.

"I usually don't eat breakfast so early actually." I replied, which really was the truth.

"I usually drink a couple of cups of coffee before breakfast first, and then I eat."

"Oh." Shizuka replied as she looked at me slightly disappointed. "Well, if you don't like it, I can always make you something else."

"No, no." I said, trying not to hurt her feelings as I grabbed the bowl of miso soup and started to eat. "This is fine, besides we need to get moving anyway, so I guess I'll eat right now, after all." I replied as I avoided looking at the fish which I could have sworn was watching my hand as I reached for the bowl of soup.

I took another sip of my soup trying not to think about how I was going to go about trying to eat that fish without throwing up and hurting Shizuka's feelings when the serenity of our little world was rudely shattered as the doors to the condo burst in around us.

* * *

It was all my fault actually. I had let my guard down and that is one thing in combat you must never do. I was not an experienced combat soldier, and if I had been, I would have taken more precautions and would have definitely been better prepared.

Unfortunately, I had gotten used to thinking that my only enemies right now were the slow-moving Infected, or panicked civilians falling over each other in panic and desperate enough to do anything to save themselves, or even the dregs of society that had indeed tried to attack us already **twice**, but in truth, were only amateurs with a lot of gall and no real weapons or fighting skills.

It was that kind of thinking that had caused me to seriously underestimate what kind of foes we would be facing, although in all truth, what were the chances of a well-trained assault force breaking in and performing a raid on us?

And it's that kind of thinking and complacency that will get you in trouble every time, as suddenly the front and rear doors were breached by someone slamming a sledgehammer into the doors from the first and second floors simultaneously.

And then as the doors fell to the floor about a dozen figures, all of them dressed in black fatigues and wearing gas masks, burst through the doorways with assault weapons at the ready.

The sound of the men breaching the doors all at once scared everyone almost to death as all the women screamed and Alice carrying the puppy, rushed into Shizuka's arms as the assault team came in, pointing the muzzles of their weapons at us.

* * *

It was almost a textbook assault, just like the one I had experienced in the "Kill House" back in Nevada during my first day at Laidlaw. And I almost mistook the black hooded figures for SWAT or even SAS except as I looked closer, I noticed that they were not equipped with the same gear and weapons as an SAS or Police SWAT team would be equipped with.

As a matter of fact, other than the gas masks and the black clothing, nothing else they wore or carried on their person was anything like the standard gear an SAS trooper or SWAT cop would carry. Nor were any of the weapons that they carried of the type that would be the preferred weapon for a Close Quarters Assault. Among the weapons that I saw was a Galil assault rifle, an M-14, an H&K G3, and the rest were carrying M16-A1's, and a couple of shotguns. All of the guns they carried were medium to long range weaponry, except for the shotguns which were skeet guns actually, and not designed for tactical use.

But just because they might not be SAS or SWAT didn't mean that they weren't a force to be reckoned with, and so I threw up my hands just like everyone else did as the men in black forced everyone to kneel on the floor as they covered us with their weapons.

Since I don't speak fluent Japanese, I couldn't understand what the men were saying as they yelled at everyone, which I'm guessing was orders for everyone to stay down, I suppose.

And since I didn't want to get shot, all I did was just kneel on the floor and stay still as they seized my Mk18, Sig pistol, and my SCUBA/DEMO knife from its sheath on my leg, as two of them covered me with their weapons.

While I watched them, I began to realize they were not as professional as they had first appeared. The breaching of the doors at the same time was impressive I'll give them that, as well as taking everyone down without firing a shot was a nice touch too.

But from what I could see now, while some acted like they knew what they were doing, for some of them, it was all amateur hour.

* * *

I was grateful that at least they had not used a stun grenade as they made entry as most professionals would have done to "stun" everyone in case any of us were armed. If they had, who knew what damage the amateurs in this bunch would have done?

But still, that would have been the wise thing to do if they suspected any of us were armed unless they had been doing surveillance on us and knew beforehand that we were not heavily armed, which I doubted.

I also noticed that they were not covering us as well as they should have been, as I noticed some of them staring hard at Shizuka whose robe had come loose a bit during the struggle and some of the "commando's" were taking their eyes off of the rest of us trying to catch a peek.

"Definitely amateurs." I thought.

And to make matters worse, at least for them anyway, they had also been very sloppy when they had searched me. They had confiscated my weapons all right which was normal. But they only took everything that they could see, and yet completely missed the H&K P7 I carried in my ankle holster.

But my biggest concern was that they were also being unnecessarily rough in the way they were treating everyone, mostly because they were obviously very nervous about what they were doing.

And as Alice cried in fear and Shizuka was trying desperately to comfort her, the men started screaming at Alice to shut up, which proved to me just how much they were in over their heads if they were already starting to lose control now with something as simple as a child crying in fear upsetting them so much.

And despite my attempts to tell everyone to stay calm, and not provoke these guys, the wannabe strike team must have decided I was not being cooperative enough because one of the fellows armed with an M16-A1, clubbed me on the side of my head with the butt of his rifle, blindsiding me as my Oakley's flew off my face.

I tried to shake off the pain of being smacked in the side of the head with the nylon butt stock from an M-16 which admittedly, is not as hard on the noggin like the wooden stock of an AK-47 or an M-14, but it still smarts being hit with one.

Of course, if I had been a more experienced combatant, I would have just taken the blow and not reacted in any way whatsoever, so as not to provoke these creeps.

But instead, rookie PMC that I am, I reacted out of pain and surprise and instinctively, with all the force I could muster, I shot my elbow out as hard as I could into the guy's groin who had hit me, causing him to double-over and fall like a sack of potatoes, screaming his head off in pain.

Yeah, that went off well with his other buddies, who proceeded to play "Inna Godda Da Vida" on my head and body with their rifle butts.

I admit it though, I was in the wrong.

* * *

The first rule of Hostage Survival 101 states specifically that "He who brandishes the weapon has the final say or action."

And me being the unarmed and "helpless" hostage, I should have just played nice and let the nice man in black use my head as a piñata as much as he pleased without interfering with his fun.

But** no**, I had to react out of pain and surprise and give him a full force elbow shot to the nuts and ruin his fun, not to mention the rest of his day, or even worse his ability to go to the bathroom like normal people.

There are few things more humiliating to a man's ego than having to pee out of a bag for the rest of his life.

Oops, sorry dude. My bad.

* * *

So now as his friends were reminding me just how displeased they were with me at overlooking "rule number one" of the hostage handbook, they decided it would be in my best interest to take it upon themselves to help refresh my memory by beating my brains out so they could start over from scratch.

Of course, seeing the error of my ways, I tried as best as I could to show that I was willing to be compliant with their "pop" quiz by allowing them to tenderize me to their heart's content without fighting back.

If there's one thing I'm good at, it's being able to take a hit.

* * *

Let's just say growing up, I was a target for every kid who wanted to make a name for himself by taking a swing at "the big kid who wouldn't fight back." And for why I wouldn't fight back, well, that's another story for later.

As things were though, even though it smarted some being clubbed the way I was, I was doing okay. I knew they were just trying to show me who was boss and if I cowered enough, they'd stop and we'd move on to the next phase, whatever that was. So I just lay there and took it.

And everything would have been just fine, if only one of them had not hit Saeko who was just trying to help me.

* * *

"STOP IT! YOU'RE KILLING HIM! Shizuka screamed as three of the black-clad attackers kept beating the American viciously with the butts of their rifles.

"PLEASE! DON"T DO THIS!" Takashi yelled as one of the other armed men pushed the teens to the floor while another covered them with his rifle.

The room began to become filled with the sounds of people screaming in fear as Shizuka and the children watched their friend being beaten savagely before them, as their attackers roared in anger yelling for everyone to shut up as the sound of the rifle butts continued to echo with a sickening thud to everyone's ears.

Saeko watched helplessly as the man was being struck over and over again, until finally, she could stay silent no more and rose to her knees.

"ENOUGH! STOP THIS, PLEASE! **Unhhh!" **Saeko cried out as one of the men struck her with the back of his hand to silence her.

Saeko fell back against the wall, her nose beginning to bleed as she looked up and glared at the man who had struck her and then raised her hands in front of her face as he acted as if he were going to hit her again.

"STOP!" The black-clad leader of the assault team said walking through the door and entering the room, as the man who had slapped Saeko turned his head at the sound of his leader's voice.

He wasn't the only one who reacted at the sound of the team leader's voice either, as almost everyone in the room turned their heads in reaction to the leader speaking in a **woman's** voice.

* * *

Unlike the rest of her friends though, the ears of one of the hostages perked up, as she recognized the voice of the female leader and then stared at her for a completely different reason than the others in the room with her.

Before the team leader could say anything more though, there was a loud roar that filled the room as the American suddenly lashed out at his attackers.

* * *

Grabbing the shirt of one of the gunmen, he then threw him bodily into the others standing there that had been clubbing him and knocked them all to the floor, as the American then hurled himself at the man who had just struck Saeko and the both of them then crashed heavily against the wall next to her.

Saeko dodged as both men slammed into the wall next to her as she rolled out of the way. She then turned around to face the two men fighting near her as she saw the American tear the other man's mask off and then grab him by the throat with one hand and violently pummel him in the face with the other.

Saeko froze, staring wide-eyed at the enraged American as she saw the terrifying look in his eyes. His eyes were the same as when the man had grabbed the teacher, Shido-sensei during their escape, and had then slammed him into the side of the bus the day they had been trying to escape from their school.

The American had come so close to killing the teacher that he had almost succeeded until Saeko had begged him to stop.

And now that same look of intense hatred was once again visible on the man's face, and Saeko knew that the American meant to kill the man who had struck her.

* * *

"OJISAN, STOP! I'M ALL RIGHT! PLEASE STOP!" Saeko screamed, hoping that her pleas would once again reach his ears and force its way through his crazed fury and stop him as before.

But this time her cries went unheard as the American continued to pummel the man as Saeko winced at hearing the sickening sound of teeth and facial bones breaking, as blood began to pour from the injured man's nose and face as the American kept beating him.

The other men meanwhile had finally managed to untangle themselves after being knocked to the floor, and as they raised their rifles to shoot the American, the leader yelled for them to stop lest they accidentally hit their comrade or Saeko lying next to them.

After barking an order, one of the men that was armed with the G3 rifle ran up behind the American and hit him with a glancing blow with the butt of his rifle.

The blow stunned the American momentarily, but instead of subduing him, the blow only served to infuriate him even more as he suddenly rose up and dove at the man who had just hit him.

The two men then crashed into the rest of the men who had just gotten up from the floor and as they landed back on the floor, the American began to punch and kick wildly at **all of the men,** with the same fury.

* * *

As the scene erupted into utter chaos, the leader aimed her pistol at the American as she knelt down, seemingly to shield Saya from harm, while Saya stared blankly at the masked woman while the fight continued nearby.

Saya snapped out of her daze however, when she heard a sudden scream come from the middle of the room as the American had reacted to being hit by another attacker and had grabbed Rei's makeshift spear that had been lying on the floor and stabbed one of the men in the leg with it and began twisting it as the man screamed in pain.

The scene had noe become completely uncontrolled as hostages and "commando's" alike were screaming and shouting as the American kept fighting in a berserker like fury, throwing chairs and swinging anything he could get his hands on at the black clad men.

Finally, one man armed with an M-14 rolled away from the others and then came up from behind the crazed American and swung his rifle butt against the back of the man's head as he then dropped to his knees from the blow.

The American was then clubbed again and again until he fell unconscious to the floor, bleeding heavily from his face and from several scalp wounds on his head.

* * *

"MAMA! PLEASE, MAKE HIM STOP!" Saya screamed as she finally found her voice and wrapped her arms around the waist of the black dressed figure.

"THAT'S ENOUGH, YOSHIOKA-SAN!" The black-clad woman roared as she motioned for her men to back off and then looked down at Saya and held her close as Saya wept against her.

"MAMA?!" Takashi said out loud as he stared at Saya gazing teary-eyed, at the leader of the group.

"Takagi-san, she's your **mother**?" Kouta asked in shock, as one of the men held him down with his boot.

As if to answer his question, the leader of the group returned her pistol to its holster and then removed her mask revealing an extremely beautiful woman who bore a striking resemblance to Saya, albeit older.

"Hai." The woman answered calmly. "I am Saya's mother. Takagi, Yuriko."

* * *

"Saya-chan. Are you all right, my child?" Saya's mother asked, almost near tears with relief at seeing her daughter again, unharmed.

"Yes, Mama!" Saya said sobbing, and then looked up at her mother. "Mama, where's Papa? Didn't he come too?"

Before her mother could answer, Saeko yelled in rage as two men grabbed her as she was about to check on the unconscious American and then roughly pushed her to the floor, and held her down as she struggled against them.

"WHY HAVE YOU ATTACKED US?!" Saeko screamed in defiance as the two men held her down. "What is the meaning for all of this? We did nothing to harm your daughter! LET US GO!"

"Calm down, all of you!" Saya's mother said as she gazed upon the people being restrained before her.

"We were led to believe that all of you may have been taken hostage by that man." Yuriko replied pointing towards the unconscious American.

"A friend in the JSDF advised us that the man was armed and dangerous, and we did not wish to take any chances. Not with your lives and certainly not with my own daughter's life."

"THAT'S RIDICULOUS!" Takashi yelled as he has also being held down on the floor. "He's done nothing but try to help us since we met him! And now you blow in here, scare everyone half to death, and allow your men to brutally beat us and expect us to really believe you're here to rescue us?! "

"I don't need to explain myself to you, boy." Yuriko replied, her face hardening and her voice like ice. "I recognize who you are Komuro, Takashi, and while I still remember what good friends you and Saya-chan have been since you were little, do not think that entitles you to challenge me on the safety of my child."

Takashi gritted his teeth as he glared at the woman who glared back at him, as he still struggled to break free.

* * *

"Takagi-sama." Shizuka said softly as Yuriko turned to look at her. "Please, I'm a nurse. Please allow me to help our friend."

Saya's mother frowned as she stared at the nurse's face upon hearing her request, but as she saw Alice quaking with fear and hanging onto Shizuka's robe, her face softened.

"Is she your child?" Yuriko asked gently as tears fell from Alice's face.

"No. We rescued her last night." Shizuka replied. "Her father was killed just down the street, and we have no idea where her mother is."

"**Takagi-sama!"** A voice yelled from outside as Yuriko quickly glanced at the man who suddenly ran through the doorway.

"What is it?" She asked.

"There's a lot of Infected coming this way!" The man replied the fear in his voice unmistakable. "At least sixty or more!"

"How much time do we have?" Yuriko asked, frowning.

"Five, maybe ten minutes at the most." The man replied sweating profusely.

"Everyone, we need to move now!" Yuriko ordered her men. "Aoshima, put the wounded in the van, and have the children placed in my vehicle."

"What about him, Takagi-sama?" The man with the M-14 asked as he pointed the muzzle of his rifle at the American. "Should we dispose of him here or try to take him with us? He's awfully big for us to carry."

"Mama, please don't let them kill him!" Saya gasped in horror at the reality that they were indeed serious about killing the man rather than taking the risk of him coming after them later, as Yuriko looked down at her daughter's crying face.

"Just a moment Yoshioka-kun." Yuriko replied as she tried to calm her daughter.

* * *

"Saya-chan, the only reason we came in as forcefully as we did was to catch him by surprise before he could get to his weapons and hopefully take him prisoner." Her mother replied. "But our first priority was to rescue you and your friends. His being taken alive as a prisoner was only incidental."

"But now that he's unconscious and injured as well, he's just too big for any of us to carry my child, and I won't risk the lives of everyone by wasting time trying to drag him away." Yuriko replied, and then added as she gazed at the unconscious man. "And we also can't leave him behind to pursue us later when he regains consciousness either."

"Takagi-san, please, I'm begging you, don't hurt him!" Saeko wept as she looked up at Saya's mother as the men still continued to hold her down.

"He only struck out when one of your men struck me! PLEASE! He was only trying to protect me!" Saeko said as tears fell down her face.

"I'm sorry child, I don't know who you think he is, but we've been informed that he is actually a very dangerous man and quite possibly an enemy of the State, according to our sources." Yuriko replied looking at her sadly. "And I will not risk any of our lives just to help a man who killed six people last night and nearly tried to kill my own men as well."

A sudden shout erupted from one of the men that was trying to help the man that had been speared through the leg earlier, as the injured man suddenly began to convulse violently and then seemed to go unconscious and stopped breathing altogether.

* * *

"Tetsutarou! The man yelled as he shook his friend and tried to frantically do CPR on him when he couldn't feel a pulse.

After a few moments of haphazard chest thrusts with no result, the man stopped and was about to give up, when the supposedly "dead" man suddenly rose up and began to attack the man who had tried to help him, much to everyone's shock.

"HELP ME!" The man screamed desperately as the Infected man tried to bite him.

"HELP ME! DOI-SAN'S INFECTED!" The man screamed in fear.

"THE SPEAR!" Yoshioka yelled in warning. "It must have been tainted with contaminated blood! Stay away from it!"

Rei gasped as she realized that once again, the dried blood that was on her spear had just claimed another victim.

Yuriko Takagi had begun to feel sympathetic with the teen's pleas for mercy for the American's life.

However, at the sight of one of the family's most trusted retainers and closest friends Tetsutarou Doi being Infected with the Contagion at the American's hand, any sympathy she might have had dissolved as her face became a mask of fury, and she then turned to the rest of the men in her command and gave the orders that sealed the man's fate and that of everyone else.

* * *

"All of you take Saya-chan and the rest of them outside and load them into the vehicles!" Yuriko yelled at the men still holding Shizuka, Alice, and the teens.

Their captors then immediately began to try to pull them all towards the door at Yuriko's order, which was proving increasingly difficult as their captives began kicking and screaming as they were being dragged out the door.

While those men were busy dragging their captives away, the rest struggled desperately to help the other man who was still trying to break free from the Infected man's grip.

"Yoshioka-kun." Yuriko said to the man holding the M-14, as he looked into her eyes, nodded, and flipped off the safety of his rifle with a loud click.

At first it seemed that the man Yoshioka was preparing himself to defend everyone from the Infected man.

However to Saya's horror, the man Yoshioka, her father's most trusted retainer, wasn't directing his gaze at the struggle nearby.

His attention was on the unconscious man at his feet.

The meaning was all too clear.

* * *

"MAMA! PLEASE DON'T!" Saya screamed as one of the men came up and dragged her away from her mother as she struggled to break free, while her mother turned her head away.

"YOSHIOKA-SAN! PLEASE DON'T KILL HIM! PLEASE! Say screamed in desperation as she was roughly carried towards the door.

"Takagi-san, please listen to me!" Rei pleaded as tears fell from her face. "The spear was mine! He didn't know there was contaminated blood on it! Please, it's not his fault!"

"Restrain them if you have to and get ready to move, NOW!" Yuriko ordered, ignoring Rei and looking away as the men carrying Saya and the others struggled greatly to drag them all out the door as everyone savagely fought their captors every step of the way.

"TAKAGI-SAMA! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! PLEASE!" Saeko screamed as Yuriko ignored her anguished pleas as she watched her men finally pull the Infected man Tetsutarou, off the man that was being attacked.

They then began restraining the Infected man's hands with nylon handcuffs and also began to carefully attempt to tape his mouth shut as he savagely kept trying to bite them.

And the last thing Saeko Busujima saw as she was roughly dragged out the door was the American lying face down, unconscious and still bleeding on the floor, as the man Yoshioka stood over him with his rifle and then pointed the muzzle at the helpless man.

"**YAMERO!" **Saeko screamed, as she was roughly dragged away.

* * *

Author's Notes :

Guess it's safe to say based on some of the reviews I've gotten about the ending….

"Bet you didn't see that coming." (^_^)

When I decided to write "Last Alarm" I had intended to pretty much stick with the original storyline with just the addition of my OC. But I also wanted to add my own life experiences and personal touch as well.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't any fun doing it that way and so as you can see, I went my own direction in much of the story.

For some who have PM'ed me about Yuriko Takagi, she is really not a bad person, and in the manga and the anime, she was pictured as a brave woman who rescued her daughter and also helped her husband make a stand at Takagi Manor.

In my opinion though, the portrayal of Saya's parents was too brief and a little too rigid, so I decided to expand on them a bit more.

Yuriko loves her daughter dearly, and in the anime there was still a lot of friction between mother and daughter. In this scenario, I wished to portray Yuriko as a strong woman as well as a good leader.

But still, she is not perfect and she and Saya butt heads every now and then. And in this case, having to put the lives of the teens and her people over the lives of Jim is understandable, but not a decision everyone is in agreement with including the teens.

When I started writing this story, I wrote out a rough draft and went as far as ten chapters intending on doing one a month.

Now, it's only a couple months later and I'm up to Chapter 21 and those notes are long gone and everything up to now has been off the top of my head.

I'm not bragging, I'm just saying that I've exceeded what I intended and while I still have my own story to tell, I wouldn't mind hearing what all of you would like me to do with what happens next.

I've had some ask that Jim be captured and tortured by the Takagi's. (Poor Jim. As if he hasn't gone through enough. Ah well, should have just stayed retired instead of going off seeking adventure.)

It's also been suggested that Jim be left behind and have to fend for himself and meet up with the teens later.

And it's also been suggested Jim be killed. (Geez, I didn't think my character was that hated.)

Seeing as how Jim gets wounded during the final act, that ain't gonna happen, sorry.

So for any of you who have been faithfully reading my story, I'd like to hear from you what you'd like to see happen. This is not a poll. I'd just like you to PM me if you want to offer a suggestion on what should happen to Jim next and I'll see what I can work out.

In the next chapter, we get to see the Outbreak through a different point of view. When I first started writing the story, I extended an offer to anyone wishing to be portrayed in this story and after a couple of chapters, only one made an offer of an OC.

And so with poynton90's help, all of you get to see the battle at the airport through a member of BLUE Team's eyes.

And since poynton90 is a friend "from across the pond", his OC, Andrew is a former member of 22nd Regiment SAS that was Jim's mentor back in Nevada and also his best friend.

So I'm sure that any of my readers from England will be happy to see a fellow "Brit" become a regular part of the story.

And since the next few chapters take place at the airport, yes, it's safe to say that we'll be seeing a lot more of our favorite sniper again. All Rika fans can rejoice.

See ya'll soon!

Coming next,

"He Who Dares Wins." - Andrew's Story


	22. Chapter 21- The Man from Hereford-Part 1

Last Alarm

Chapter 21

"The Man from Hereford"

"Andrew's Story" Part 1

A collaborative effort by Poynton90 and Firemanjim

* * *

"Who Dares Wins."

Motto of the Special Air Service

* * *

The Special Air Service or SAS is a regiment of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) and have served as a model for the Special Forces of many other countries all over the world.

The SAS traces its origins to 1941 and the Second World War, and currently, the Regular Army 22 SAS which later gained fame and recognition worldwide after successfully assaulting the Iranian Embassy in London and rescuing hostages during the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege, lifted the Regiment from obscurity to worldwide fame outside the military establishment as television cameras captured the rescue on live TV as the world watched spellbound.

The Special Air Service presently comprises 22 Special Air Service Regiment of the Regular Army, 21 Special Air Service Regiment and 23 Special Air Service Regiment from the Territorial Army. It is tasked primarily with counter-terrorism in peacetime and Special Operations in wartime.

One of the most highly respected Special Operations units in the world, the SAS continues to operate in territories around the world, its missions conducted under absolute secrecy. Volunteers going through SAS Selection for "The Regiment" are a mix of men from all other units including the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines.

The training is dangerous and only a chosen few earn the honor of being able to wear the sand-colored beret with the SAS Regimental cap badge.

Because of their superb reputation as a Commando Unit, other countries have modeled their own Special Forces Units after the SAS and continuously cross-train with them in the latest counterterrorism and hostage rescue techniques. Among them, the Australian SAS was formed, as well as the Rhodesian SAS Squadrons.

The United States Army also modeled their own Counterterrorism Unit, Special Operations Detachment-Delta commonly called "Delta Force" based on the SAS, after their founder Col. Charles Beckwith cross-trained with the SAS as an exchange officer during his career as a Green Beret.

Among the many non-military units that also train with SAS Instructors in counterterror techniques are the Special Assault Teams of the Japanese Prefectural Police.

Due to their excellent training and solid reputation as top-notch soldiers as well as their combat experience in all parts of the world, former members of the famed unit are always in high demand by Private Military Companies the world over after their career in the Military is completed.

* * *

Time: Morning. Z-Day

Location: Tokonosu City Park. Downtown Tokonosu City.

Name: Andrew Poynton

Age: 32

D.O.B: 19th June 1980

Nationality: British (England, United Kingdom)

Eye Colour: Pale Green-Right Eye, Left eye removed from wounds sustained by IED shrapnel)

Ethnicity: White-British

Hair: Long combed back Dark Brown, Blond highlights

Facial Hair: Dark goatee

Blood Type: A+

Current Occupation: Laid-Law Private Security Contractor (Blue Team)

Former Occupation: British 22nd Regiment SAS (UKSF)

Previous Parent Unit- British Royal Marines (Pathfinder Forward-Operating Unit)

Call Sign: Bluestone 42

Current Situation: Totally buggered, mate.

* * *

"JIM!" I yelled, as I turned around and suddenly realized the noob wasn't behind me like he was supposed to have been.

"JIM! WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA, MAN?!" I yelled again looking for the burly latino who was supposed to been right on my arse but instead, was nowhere to be found.

"Bugger, where has that old man run off to now?" I thought, starting to get a little frantic now with the sounds of pain-filled screams and sirens both increasing in intensity.

"JIMMYYY!" I roared, with only the ever increasing sounds of gunfire and high-pitched screams answering my frantic calls.

"Bloody hell Jimmy-boy, where the hell did you bugger off to?" I said, as I started to realize my mate wasn't going to answer.

As a member of a combat team, we stay with our team at all times unless our team leader orders us to split up to accomplish a specified task or as in this case, to escape and evade.

Even Jim knew the importance of sticking with your team from being on the *"Fire Brigade" all those years in America, and hadn't run off on his own when things began to hit the fan until we were all ordered to break off.

I had to admit, I was pretty impressed that he had stuck with us and not run off after we were attacked at the airport and then after the crash, and he had even stuck it out with us when we were trapped between the trigger happy cops and the Infected coming at us behind our backs. Most blokes would have beat feet long before then.

*(In the United Kingdom, members of the Fire Service are referred to as belonging to a Fire Brigade. Whereas in America, Firefighters are referred to as belonging to a Fire Department.)

And even though I had trained the Yank what to do if we had to E&E, I just didn't feel right leaving him on his own the first time out. And so despite myself, I told him to stick with me even though I had cut our chances of getting away by half when I did that.

Sod off, he was my friend, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

* * *

If Jim had been a real soldier with even a little military experience, fine, he knew what would be expected of him and he would have to take the same risks just like the rest of us did.

But the fill-in medic wasn't a soldier, and when the leader of BLUE team had told us to get ready to run I had quickly told Jim to stick with me just before the cops opened up on us.

And once they did, I hoofed it to the left keeping to the cover of the trees just like I had so many times before under fire back when I was a member of RED Troop with *"The Regiment".

*(Members of the of the Special Air Service are referred to as belonging to "The Regiment". Whereas, in America, members of Special Operations Detachment-Delta or "Delta Force" are referred as belonging to "The Unit.")

Just when I had started running for cover, I had heard the medic on my team, Ben, yelling "Pappy, run!" which is a name the rest of the boys called Jim after we found out how old the former "hose jockey" was.

*("Hose jockey" - American Emergency Services Slang for "Firefighter")

* * *

When I first heard the boys call him that I was already royally pissed off that a friggin *"Benny" was being hired as a medic for GREEN Team to begin with.

Bad enough hiring a guy with no combat experience in the first place, but hiring one that's over forty years of age?

*("Benny" - British Military Slang for Civilian)

Hell, most guys his age are already behind a desk or collecting retirement, not running around in the bush playing commando.

* * *

But after a while the Yank grew on me, although I never liked the idea of calling him "Pappy" like the rest of the boys did, especially after talking to him that one night after he was treating my eye. Jim was a good sort all right, but calling him "Pappy" seemed to bother him a bit. I guess he missed the way his friends in the Fire Brigade used to call him "Pappy" before he left.

Sometimes old habits and old feelings die hard I suppose.

Ever since that first day at the Kill House when I double-tapped that target next to his head, I could see that the man was definitely different than most civilians, and in time, he turned out to be good people all around and I could also see that he was really thrilled to be with us as I helped train him to be a combat medic for GREEN Team.

But I could also see a faint sadness in him whenever someone asked him about his days as a hose jockey, or when someone called him "Pappy" even though he always answered to it with a smile.

It reminded me of myself when I left The Regiment after getting out of hospital and I had to leave the Army.

And so I always called him "Jim".

* * *

And if I had been paying attention, I would have realized something was wrong for Ben to be yelling for Jim to run once everyone broke for cover.

But at the time I was too busy thinking of a way to get us both out of this mess to realize my mate wasn't following me at all until I reached the edge of the park and then checked behind me to see if he was keeping up.

Jim was a good man, and in decent shape, but he was no trooper in The Regiment, and even after all that combat and survival training in Nevada, I was still worried that he wouldn't be able to keep up if the shite hit the fan.

And from the looks of things, my worries were proven true when I turned around and there was no sign of him anywhere.

"JIMMYYYY!" I yelled once more as bullets began to whine overhead, and I began to hear the blood-curdling screams of a lot of people being killed and a whole lot of sirens beginning to fill the air.

"F_CK!" I yelled, as I realized that Jim wasn't coming, either because he was hurt or dead, I couldn't tell. But if I wished to survive this, then I couldn't afford to go back for him even though every part of me wanted to.

I waited a moment more hoping he would show up, and then when he didn't show, I finally turned heel and ran down one of the narrow streets away from the carnage, feeling like I had just abandoned my friend as I ran as fast as I could while bullets whined overhead.

"I'm sorry, mate." I thought to myself, as I ducked into a side street.

* * *

It had taken a few hours of trying to keep low amongst all the locals running for their lives before I finally was able to make a call to an old mate from the *"Para's" and gain access to the newly re-located English Embassy in Tokonosu.

Unlike the rest of boys in BLUE and GREEN Team, I** did have** contacts here in town, although I wasn't able to brief the rest of the boys about them before we were forced to split up.

*("Para's" – British Military Slang for Paratroopers of the Parachute Regiment)

Of course, crashing our *"heli" in the middle of a downtown park while running from flesh-eating monsters didn't exactly give me a lot of time to work out some sort of quick E&E plan before we were fired upon by the locals and had to run for our lives.

*("Heli" – Slang for Helicopter)

I really wished that I would have had the time though, because my mates were now scattered all over Japan heading for "The Hilton," our code word for the American Embassy in Tokyo, when we could all just have met here not more than five miles from the crash site.

As I walked through the back doors of the Embassy escorted by my mate, Pete from the "Para's", I was then led into "The Cave" which was the underground "Safe Room" underneath the Embassy. Once there, I could finally take a breather and assess my situation and figure out my next move. And at the same time, I couldn't help but feel guilty that I was "safe" while everyone else on both teams were still out there fighting for their lives.

And then my thoughts turned to the friend I'd left behind.

I hoped Jim was all right, but trained or not, he was still a "Benny", and other than when we were training, he still didn't know what it was like to be under fire.

I have seen a lot of men in other ground units react differently to the sound of bullets winging by. And the truth is you never know what you're going to do until the bullets begin to fly around your head.

Jim was a fireman, not a soldier. And while he may have been under fire in the literal sense of the word, a flat in flames is not the same as a mess of bullets shot at you. And that fact might very well have been the reason he wasn't behind me when I turned around.

Ben had yelled "Pappy, RUN!" which led me to believe that Jim had frozen under fire. And if he had, he might have been shot by the local cops or attacked by the Infected. I may never know. Although a part of me didn't want to believe he was dead.

But there was no denying, my friend was gone.

And there was nothing else I could do for him.

* * *

It had been just like many times before when I was in the field during an OP.

Quick in through the back door of the Embassy or planned "Safe House" under escort from an old friend who would whisk me through and then later I'd walk right out the front door just like I'd been employed there all along with all the other staff.

Posing as one of the security detail was easiest. Quick shower, and shave, new suit, and new passport and all the papers I needed to keep the locals off my back and even a weapon to keep me feeling all warm and fuzzy.

How's that for service?

Sometimes it was almost bloody fun walking right out in the open under the protection of "Diplomatic Immunity" even though most of the other staff not on security detail had never even seen me before or had a clue as to who the hell I was.

And this time was no different, at first.

Quick in through the back after meeting up with Pete outside and him escorting me in. A quick shower and shave, my *"kit" all locked up in a secure container with security seals on it, and my sidearm in a shoulder holster under my new Armani suit, and Voila! Embassy Security Field Agent David Montgomery at your service.

*("Kit"- Slang for personal equipment carried in the field including pack, weapons, ammo rations, etc.)

Last time during an OP it was Timothy Postlewaite and before that….well, whatever alias I needed to go by to fit the mission.

I couldn't help but enjoy the feel of the fine silk of my new Armani suit. Personal security of a diplomat is not all that desirable a duty most of the time, but being assigned to security detail does have its perks once in a while.

Wonder what the chaps in the American CIA are wearing in the field nowadays.

* * *

And once the orders had been given to secure the Ambassador, his family, and his staff, and evacuate, I had then been quickly and easily attached to the Security Detail and rode along with the rest of the motorcade to an awaiting heli.

It did concern me a great deal however that we were to embark a 747 to Australia from the same bloody airport me and my teammates had tried so damned hard to fly the hell out of this morning. But the other chaps in the Security Detail advised me that the area we were to board was still secure.

And after sprucing up, I felt a little more confident I wouldn't be recognized by Airport Security now that I was all clean and official looking and not looking like my usual "Desert Rat" persona.

Once our heli touched down, we were quickly escorted to the Main Terminal to await the fueling of our jet before we boarded. Everything was going all well and routine and we were just about to board when one of the Airport Security suddenly recognized me and started screaming bloody murder as he raised his weapon.

I had recognized him too, although I was too late to turn away as he yelled and unholstered his service pistol. He had been one of the bastards on the early watch yesterday when we had landed on the far end of the island and I guess he had recognized me just as I was about to walk through the access way.

Well, it became chaos right then after he started waving his pistol around and everyone started screaming and running for cover. Everything would have been just fine though, if the Embassy staff had just kept their head, but then a secretary or clerk of some sort started screaming that she'd never seen me before and then police started running in from all directions waving their guns and the youngster in front of me accidentally let loose a round and then it all went to hell after that.

People started running and screaming in all directions and since my cover was now blown, I saw no reason to chat any further and exited stage right through a hallway as the police struggled to fight their way through the panicked mess of people blocking their way.

I somehow managed to give them the slip and grab my "kit" from the loading crew before the Airport Police saw me and took a couple of shots at my bum as I ran off.

And now here I was. Doing a John McClane in an International Airport, pursued by Police and Infected, all of them out to slot me.

* * *

Time: Z- Day Plus One

Location: Tokonosu International Airport "The Floating Airport"

Man-made Island off the coast of Tokonosu City, Japan

Underground Auxiliary Access Tunnel Network

Service Tunnel #18

* * *

"Bollocks." I thought as I shook my head in misery.

What is it those Yanks say all the time?

"Out of the pan, into the bloomin' fire?"

That was my situation now all right.

Blood. Carbonized iron. That was the smell definitely, as well as the pungent smell of a mixture of ammonia and excrement mixed together.

Nothing like the scent of good old piss and shit to open up the old sinuses, believe me.

The noises were also a mixture as well, with the sound of flesh being torn from the bones of a corpse, and then the chunks of flesh being torn apart once again and munched in the mouths of the infected. The tight quarters were filled with the nauseating sounds of slurping and growling and grunts as one Infected snatched a piece of flesh from another that knelt beside it, both of their hands covered in blood and gore, as they both fed upon a dead airport worker they had just killed.

The face of the worker they had just killed was forever frozen in a state of both shock and horror, a picture of death I'd seen more times than I care to remember and a vision that haunts me still to this day. Splashes of blood were splattered all over his face, and below that, his throat was covered in bite marks, with some even having punctured the poor bastard's throat.

His chest was laid bare after the Infected had ripped away the black overalls and the under shirts, with the skin then being ripped away afterwards and then the chest cavity laid completely bare of all the organs that were supposed to have been there.

His lower abdomen however was the worst mutilated portion of his body. The lower intestines had been yanked upon and had fallen out of the abdominal cavity and pooled up beside the body whilst they had been ripped apart by the two Infected, pooling the entire area with the victim's blood.

To any normal person the horrific sight, vile smell, and the atrocious noises would have made them lose their lunch, no joke intended. But to me it wasn't anything really new.

Although I had to admit, some sort of sickening fascination had over taken me as I watched the spectacle unfold. Kind of like watching a traffic accident where everyone's mucking about trying to get a glimpse no matter how awful the scene is.

However, I really shouldn't be just standing around and taking in the sights because I really did have more pressing matters to attend to.

Pressed for time, I walked up to the closest Infected that was holding a kidney ripped from the worker's body in its hands and growled as I came near, sensing a rival attempting to snatch away it's meal I suppose .

In response, I then drew my handgun, an old German manufactured SIG-Sauer P226 that I had "lost" during my time with The Regiment" from its holster attached to my combat vest, and aimed it at the Infected's forehead.

"Disgusting," I growled, as it opened its mouth as if to show me what it was he was eating, just like a kid.

I then fired a single round through its cranium as its head snapped back and the roar of the shot echoing down the long tunnels as the back of the Infected's head exploded, with blood and grey matter splashing the wall behind its body as it slumped against the wall away from the body of the dead worker.

The second Infected worker's head snapped around at the gunshot and focused on the location the loud noise came from and prepared to stand up.

I then pointed the muzzle at the second one's skull and fired another round, the spot I aimed for the same as the first Infected I had shot before. I then watched as it slumped down on top of the poor fellow whom the two Infected had just slaughtered.

"Poor bastard," I muttered as I aimed my pistol at the worker's forehead and fired a third round.

My reason for shooting the already dead worker was mercy, and not because I really felt like wasting rounds.

My intention was to give the victim some form of decency not to come back as one of the Infected if there was even a remote chance that was possible. The poor fellow had suffered enough, as far as I was concerned.

There was no more time to dwell on the tragedy of the situation however.

* * *

The sound of the gunshot had echoed down the corridors of the underground tunnels and reverberated off the walls, and If there were any more Infected around, then the sound would be like ringing the dinner bell and unless I truly wished to end up like the man at my feet, then I had to move, and move right now.

Holstering the SIG-Sauer semi-automatic, I then quietly jogged down the corridor away from the scene of chaos back towards my main objective, which was getting back to the hanger to retrieve my gear, if it was still there of course.

Earlier in the day while trying to evade the Airport Police, I had dropped both my backpack and my *"long" when I was forced to hide underground away from the Infected when they first appeared and as well from the Japanese SAT, the Special Assault Team who had also fired upon me as I rushed towards cover.

*("Long" – British slang for rifle.) (1) Long; is a British Army, Navy, Air force and Special Forces term for Assault, Battle or Sniper Rifle as opposed to 'Short', which means either Semi-Automatic, Revolver, Machine pistol or Sub-machine gun.

Luckily for me, the gunshots must have been difficult for the Infected underground in the tunnels to pinpoint the direction from where they came from, because of the echo and the reverberation of the sound off the tunnel walls.

Unfortunately, I could still hear them groaning and growling above me up on the runway. And If I couldn't retrieve my gear, then I would be forced to put "Plan B" into motion without them, and that was a situation I really didn't want.

"Plan B" consisted of finding the main utility tunnel that led back to the mainland and hopefully to freedom where I could then start my long journey to the American Embassy in Tokyo where the rest of the LaidLaw teams would be gathering for evacuation.

From all those years of training in Airplane Hostage Rescue and Airport Security Drills with the SAS, I knew that this island's airport could support itself with generators and solar panels for added electricity in case the power was cut, but the main power lines and other utility lines that powered and ran the island had to connect from the island to the mainland via underground tunnels.

And the power cables used to power the island's airport were of such enormous size and complexity, that they had to have their own maintenance tunnels from the mainland that could support vehicles and personnel to maintain them as well.

However, this was not Heathrow, and after I had been walking for over an hour, I was getting rather pissed off at this point for I could have sworn I had walked along the same corridor twice now.

**F_cking twice.**

* * *

"Where the f_cking hell is the BLOODY EXIT?!" I growled out loud, hoping for an answer and only hearing the sound of my own voice echoing down the corridor in response.

Well,at first anyway.

Unfortunately, the answer I wanted didn't come, but something **unwanted **did, as I gazed ahead at the sounds of approaching shadows coming towards him.

"Bollocks." I grumbled and then suddenly noticed that just ahead, a T-junction in the corridor split off, and from both directions, several of the Infected came lumbering from around the corners.

And **all** of "Them" were headed directly for me.

"Oh you've gotta be f_ckin' kidding me," I muttered as I drew my handgun once more and started to hastily retreat back the way I came, but just as I spun around to retreat down the corridor, I spotted several more Infected approaching from behind.

"Well this is no better!" I grumbled.

Left with little choice, I then took aim at the closest Infected and fired a single round. The full metal jacketed round tore through the Infected worker's skull and penetrated into the one standing behind him as both then crumpled to the ground.

I then fired once again with the second round also penetrating straight through another Infected's forehead and also penetrating the one behind it in the head again as before.

"Two birds with one stone; I finally understand what it means at last." I chuckled, trying to use humor to steel myself. A trick I had learned from hanging around Jim.

After firing off several more rounds and cutting down a few more of the Infected, I then beat a hasty retreat back the way I came after jumping over the small pile of bodies I had just created. It was no easy task however trying to get around them. The overhead pipes and high voltage cables in this particular service tunnel slowed me down considerably and prevented me from making any type of hurried progress.

In order to get through, I was still required to duck, run, zip, roll, climb and even drop in some parts of it. Finally, after much exhausting effort, I managed to find a spot where I could finally see daylight coming from a ground level access cover directly above my head.

Finally, the staircase I had been searching for all along was ahead of me. I smiled in exhausted relief as I jogged towards it. And as I ran, I quickly checked the magazine of my pistol as I approached the stairs. There were only eight rounds left in the magazine, hardly enough to fight off anything that would attack me. All the other magazines were in my pack along with all my gear and my "long."

Therefore, I would have to be **exceptionally** cautious not to engage anything until I could get to my "kit", especially on the surface where there were perhaps hundreds of Infected roaming around about now.

Slowly, carefully, I climbed up the metal stairs and then after slowly opening the cover and quickly scanning the surface above, I was once again immediately greeted by the smell of blood that had been baking in the sun, and after turning my head a bit, I saw the owner of it lying nearby. Only this time, the smell was much worse due to the body having lain in the sun for the majority of the day.

"Oh HELL, this smelt worse than the bodies I found whilst on that OP in Sierra Leone several years ago." I said retching.

Hard to believe though. Those bodies on that particularly nasty Op had been dead for several days.

I then slowly began breathing through my mouth instead and retched at the smell that still managed to drift up my nostrils.

* * *

"Dirty rotters," I growled watching a horde of Infected stumbling around nearby. I couldn't seem to turn a corner without those bastards lurking nearby. As I looked around the area, I could see from where I was currently positioned that the hanger where I had been forced to ditch my gear was still over several hundred meters away.

I sighed as I holstered the SIG-Sauer and stood up to my full height and pondered my current situation.

Several hundred meters to attempt to reach my gear over open ground trying to evade the Infected and also any sniper teams on the watch for me.

It was suicide no matter how you looked at it.

But my only other avenues had been cut off by the Infected that infested the tunnels. And so that left only one choice.

* * *

Slowly I made my way behind the aircraft hangers, hoping against hope, that this would accomplish two things.

The first being, that it would be easier to avoid the Infected that were roaming around out in the open and who seemed to be more interested in shuffling about on the runway for some reason, maybe from the sound of the jet turbines nearby.

Secondly, if there were any SAT or JGSDF snipers at the terminal they hopefully wouldn't be able to easily snipe at me either if I stuck to cover. So far, my only threat was the Infected and the snipers. The Airport Security were not all that crazy about sending ground patrols for me again after what happened earlier, so I wasn't too worried about them anymore.

And as I quietly moved towards my goal I was pleased to find that there were also no Infected behind any of the hangers I had taken cover behind while making my approach towards where my gear lay.

Finally, after some effort, I was standing behind the hanger right next to the one that I had taken cover in just after ditching my gear. This was the most dangerous part now, especially if anyone had seen my gear lying there and was just waiting for me to pop my head up to try to retrieve it.

So ever so slowly, I snuck out from behind the large aircraft hangar and then carefully stood beside the large open doors in the shadows, away from any unseen sniper.

"THERE." I thought with much relief, after spotting my gear. My pack was lying on the ground on the grass, exactly where I had ditched it. But as much as I was relieved to see my pack, I was horrified as well.

Where the bloody hell was my carbine?

The answer soon presented itself as I heard a scraping sound and carefully looked a bit further to see an Infected airport worker with blood stains all over his overalls and half of his face and jaw missing dragging my carbine by its sling that was caught around the Infected man's ankle.

**One hundred meters away.**

* * *

"Oh give me a f_cking break, PLEASE." I muttered shaking my head.

Exasperated, I then quickly ran over to my pack and managed to retrieve it and run balls to the wall back to the hangar without making any noise. Now, the real challenge before me was to retrieve my carbine, which was going to be tricky to say the least.

There were more than **twenty** Infected around the area, but fortunately, there were none around the Infected worker that I would have to kill to get my carbine without making any noise.

Quietly, I pulled out my MercWorx Equatorian Standard combat knife and started creeping up towards the Infected worker dragging my rifle. I had managed to avoid making any contact with the rest of the Infected so far, but now they seemed to be gathering around, as if sensing my presence regardless of how stealthy I was being.

"Shite!" I thought, this was not looking good.

Most folks would have thought that maybe I should just abandon the effort to try to retrieve my carbine, but the problem would be was that I would be losing a great deal of firepower if I did that, and I would need all the help I could get if I was going to have any chance of successfully getting off this island, much less making the long trip all the way to Tokyo.

I still had the Mossberg 590 Compact Cruiser pump-action shotgun attached to my pack in its carry bag with more than two-dozen 12-Gauge shells waiting to be used, but then I would be carrying all the STANAG magazines with no purpose, other than being extra weight that I truly did not need to be carrying until I found a compatible replacement firearm.

"No, I've come this far, I might as well go all the way." I thought to myself, the old training kicking in.

Unless you're in imminent danger, there's no excuse for ditching your weapon on purpose. Your weapon is your life, and if it hadn't been for the fact I'd been forced to drop my gear to evade the Police, I'd have been captured or slotted for sure.

As it was, I was still surprised to find my gear still lying there and not having been retrieved by the Airport cops until I saw what was left of them nearby as I made my approach to the Infected worker dragging my carbine. They'd obviously been pounced upon as soon as I had taken cover underground and had turned back to confiscate my "kit".

Lucky for me, unlucky for them.

* * *

"Sorry, boys." I thought as I walked past a blood-covered policeman's hat lying on the ground.

After making a slow, stealthy approach to the Infected's rear while still taking cover behind the hangars, I finally reached a point where I knew that a sniper team wouldn't be able to take a shot and quickly and quietly came directly behind the infected dragging my rifle. I then grabbed the worker's scalp by what little hair remained and thrust my knife up through the soft tissue at the base of the skull.

I then twisted the knife around violently as all muscle activity of the Infected worker ceased almost immediately. Grabbing the corpse, I then lowered the body to avoid making any noise and accidentally give my position away. Then carefully, I untangled the shoulder strap from around the Infected's ankle and pulled my carbine free.

I inspected the Daniel Defense DDM4 MK18 carbine for any physical damage and was pleased at not finding any damage other than cosmetic. I then pulled the strap over my shoulder and sheathed the knife away after wiping the blood off on the Infected's coveralls.

Slowly, so as not to draw attention, I then made my way back to the hangar and retrieved my pack, and with a heavy sigh, slumped down beside it, exhausted.

I wasn't out of danger though, as I scanned around the immediate area and sighed again with relief at not having been spotted by Infected or Police.

I then waited a few minutes more to catch my breath after I realized I hadn't been breathing for a few moments when I had snuck up upon the infected dragging my rifle away, further and further into the airfield.

Thinking about that, I checked my rifle over, and was glad to see that the 'Zombie Stopper' EOTech sight was still working fine without any problems as well as the Surefire weaponlight. But I was most displeased with the scratches on the rifle's custom camo paint work.

I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to my gear, and I love my carbine and spent a lot of time and money on getting the camo job done on it, just for some stupid shuffling lout to bugger it all up.

Oh bloody hell, guess I'll get over it in time.

* * *

I then sat completely still for a while watching with curiosity as the Infected strolled by and ignored me completely. I had thought to myself before, that while I wasn't as expert on the human anatomy as the medics on BLUE and GREEN Team were, I did know enough from what first-aid training I had been taught.

And, from what I knew, when the human body dies electrical currents still remained within the body for a while. And even hair and both finger and toenails continued to grow as the bio-electrical charge took time to dissipate.

Other than that, the only time I was interested in the inner workings of the human body was when I was busy gutting some bastard who had tried to chop my head off with a machete once.

"Buggers would probably look a lot like "Cousin IT" from Adams family before too long," I chuckled, but my humor and my break were both cut short when I suddenly heard a whining sound. A very familiar whining sound that made me roll forward and lay down flat on the tarmac, as a bullet hit the spot where I had just been sitting moments before.

Time to go, **fast**.

I quickly grabbed my rifle and pack and pushed myself up off the ground as I hoofed it away towards cover. I had to move and I had to do it sharpish. The ricochet from the bullet impact would draw the Infected's attention to my location.

But obviously, it wasn't the Infected that had my attention and was pissed off at right now but it was the unseen shooter instead.

Dammit. Dozens, maybe hundreds of Infected and **I'm the one** they're trying to *"slot"?

*( "Slot" - Slang for "Kill.")

"No wanker shoots at Andrew Poynton and lives to tell the tale." I growled as I quickly worked the charging handle on the Mark 18 carbine while I ran, chambering the round off the top of the magazine into the weapon's chamber.

I then hurriedly grabbed one of the straps of my pack as it lay on the ground and slung it through my arm as I dashed zigzagging for cover inside a hangar. No more shots were fired at me but I knew it was because I was out of the sniper team's view and possibly out of range as well because of the missed shot taken at me while I wasn't even moving. An otherwise easy kill shot for any trained sniper.

*"Wankers." I growled again.

*("Wankers" – British Slang for "Jerks.")

I then darted back behind the hangers and kept on running back the way I had come earlier. Stealth was no longer a priority as the Police had already spotted me, and to avoid capture, I needed to evade them, **now**.

The gear on my back was heavy but not enough to slow him down, not like the 100 kilo Bergens I had had to carry around back during recon operations in "The Regiment". In fact, with the added weight I actually felt even stronger and pumped my arms and legs harder and faster to get away.

But as I was running and then stole a quick glance over my shoulder, in order to check to be sure I wasn't being followed, I suddenly without warning collided with something big and fell backwards from the impact. In my haste, I had accidentally slammed into a rather large Infected Airport worker who was obviously very interested in the object that had just collided with him. That object being yours truly.

I frantically scrambled backwards as the Infected dived towards me, its hands managing to grab hold of my combat vest as I tried to beat him away from me.

The Infected howled as it tried to bite me, but with a solid strong punch I managed to knock the Infected worker backwards and away from me finally. It was only after I had pushed it away that I then heard a ripping noise. Looking down, I found that one of the pouches on my vest had ripped open and a photo that I always kept there had fallen out, and was fluttering in the wind away from me and towards the ground.

* * *

"NO!" I screamed as I frantically tried to grab the picture as it landed on the ground. But as I reached for it, the Infected worker had already scrambled to its feet and had placed a bloody boot on top of the photo.

I slowly looked up at the Infected's face, and I could feel my own beginning to contort in anger and rage as the lout's boot mashed the photo into the ground.

Adding to my fury, it seemed that there was actually a smile on the Infected worker's face, taunting me as if to purposefully antagonize me even more.

Well, I have to admit, it worked.

**"YOU MOTHERF_CKER!"** I yelled and launched myself at the Infected, knocking it off its feet.

I didn't care if I was heard by any of the other Infected shuffling about anymore. Stealth be damned at this point.

Primal rage and instinct had over taken me, and for the next few moments my vision was clouded by visions and different shades of black and red.

Rage and anger, frustration, sadness and even despair had overtaken me, until it was spent.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, after having beaten the Infected to a bloody pulp, I was sitting with my back against the wall of a nearby hangar. My Gore-Tex gloves coated in blood and gore from the Infected I had decimated with my bare hands.

My own facial features betrayed the fact that I was completely exhausted by the event. But to anyone who looked me in the face, they would almost be tricked into thinking that I was only bored by what had just happened, so screwed up I had become over the years, I suppose.

Finally regaining my composure, I slowly tilted my head over towards the picture I had lost after my vests' pocket was ripped. I then tore off the ruined gloves and slowly crawled over to the photograph on my hands and knees and picked it up quickly before returning to cover and then looked closely at it. There was no stains on the picture, neither blood nor dirt, and after seeing that it was otherwise undamaged, I let out a sigh of relief.

In my hand was the only picture I had that remained of my connection to the past. To my past life and to my past self, when my world had been a happier one.

The image in the photo was of my younger self; younger by only five years but it was still me nonetheless. The photo taken during a time when I wasn't so damaged as I was now, mentally, emotionally, as well as physically.

I gazed with fondness at the photo as I saw my younger self actually smiling at the camera as I sat on a hospital bed beside my wife, Sarah who had just given birth to our baby daughter, Anastacia.

I was still wearing my desert fatigues after having been flown back home from Afghanistan to witness the birth of our child while Red Troop was standing down after a successful mission.

Sarah was wearing her hospital gown as she lay under the duvet cover with our newborn daughter Anastasia wrapped up in a white towel.

And as I closed my eyes I could still hear my wife's screams during childbirth and then Ana's first cry as she was brought into the world.

"Sarah…. Ana…." I whispered, trailing off, unable to say anything more as the painful memories began to return and I pushed myself to forget them for now.

I shook my head sadly and then slowly slipped the photo away into another pouch that wasn't ripped and pulled the pouch cover over it to keep it secure. There was no time for pause and reflection, I had to get back on track because I still had an alert sniper team to deal with.

I pulled my pack back on to my back and cinched the straps and with carbine in hand I prepared myself to move. I knew that the snipers, if they were well trained, would be ready and waiting for me to make my break from cover soon before any reinforcements would arrive to capture me.

Calming myself for the task ahead of me, I then selected 'single-shot' on my carbine and fired a single round into the air. The five-fifty-six millimeter round would attract everything around the area to this location. Quickly peeking around the corner I then spotted at least a dozen Infected moving towards my direction.

"Good," I muttered.

I then sprang away from my spot and continued to run, preparing for the next part of my plan, which was to have the Infected congregate around the position I had fired that shot from and would then create the perfect cover for me as I hoofed it towards safety. As I reached the next hanger I then fired another shot, waiting once again for the infected to gather and then ran again once my view to the Main Terminal building was blocked. I repeated this tactic several more times until I was finally out of view of the Main Terminal building.

I was finally almost "home free" as my friend Jim called it, at least for now anyway.

However, my plan had one flaw to it as all the Infected that had gathered together and had provided me with excellent sniper cover, were all now on my tail attracted by all my shooting.

I was now being forced to move away from the hangers and towards the far end of the runway towards the perimeter of the island, which had been my goal all along, but now there was definitely no turning back.

There had to be an access tunnel to the main land near the edge of the island, and I seriously hoped there was anyway, otherwise I was seriously f_cked.

Slowly, I emerged from the hanger and made my move. I doubted that the Airport SAT Sniper Team had anything that would reach me this far, but I wasn't about to take that chance and stroll about in the open, so I ran as fast as I could, dodging each of the Infected that I came close to running into, with the exception of one I made contact with that I accidentally smacked with the stock of my carbine as I ran by, knocking the Infected down to the ground.

I was scanning feverishly for that blasted access door turning my head, looking from side to side, searching for an access passage, something, anything, becoming a little more desperate now and more than a little frustrated at not finding anything as my blood began to boil and my temper was starting to get the better of me.

* * *

**"WHERE THE F_CKING 'ELL IS IT, DAMMIT?!"** I barked aloud to nobody in particular, waiting for the whine of the bullet and the sharp pain of a sniper's round tearing into my back.

Just as I finished my little tirade, I finally saw it. The access passage that led back underground to the tunnels I had been in an hour before. "Oh thank f_ck for that!" I chuckled.

I can honestly say, I couldn't have been a happier man right now. Miracle of miracles, I had managed to recover my equipment, with some unfortunate mishaps along the way, and had even managed to avoid a sniper.

And now, I was standing over my escape route. And as I lowered myself towards the grate covering that prevented outsiders from entering the passage, something caught my attention.

Or rather, it was the smell that caught my attention, and also dashed my hopes of finally finding freedom from this island of death….…

Just as I had gotten closer to the grate to open the access hatch beneath I heard the same familiar snarling and growling coming from the tunnel that I had just escaped from before. And as the rays of sunlight shone down into the tunnel entrance below, I was dismayed to see the sun's ray's beginning to illuminate the tunnel and expose the threat below.

Infected. Dozens of them, possibly hundreds, all backed up behind each other like guests at a Who concert.

The former SAS trooper stood back from the hatch and just stared down at the crowd of Infected as they pushed and shoved each other for access as even more approached from behind.

Their presence and the sheer numbers pressing against each other only meant one thing.

It meant that untold numbers from the mainland had breached the other end of the access tunnel, and now Infected from the mainland were about to come spilling out onto the island. And there was no way that any of the access hatches were going to hold any of them back for much longer.

There was no way off the island, and nowhere else to run to either.

Faced with this latest development, the former elite United Kingdom Special Forces commando muttered two simple words that summed up his frustration…

"Well… Bugger." He muttered.

* * *

Author's Notes:

After writing the last chapter and leaving everyone on such an "evil cliffhanger" as some have put it, I realize that many **really** wish to see what happens next as Jim lies unconscious and bleeding with Yuriko Takagi and her guard standing over him with a rifle pointed at him while the HOTD crew are being dragged away kicking and screaming.

Quite frankly, I'm also interested to see what happens to my character next myself, which is why when I wrote the Author's Notes in the last chapter requesting everyone's opinion on what should happen next I got back a couple of responses requesting that Jim be left behind or Jim being captured and tortured.

I'd still like to hear from all of you and see what you think should happen to Jim. Personally, I already have an idea of what I'm going to do, but I'd still like to hear from all of you just the same, because some idea's that some of you have offered are very good and have helped me in writing my story in the past.

Especially now would be nice to hear from all of your ideas, because just like Alice's rescue, I've been writing this story by the seat of my pants as well and I would like to make what happens next worth it.

Again I realize all of you that have been faithfully following the story want to know what happens next and are probably a little anxious, but bear with me because "Andrew's Story" is equally as important as Jim's story because the characters of Andrew and Rika both have a major role with Jim and the rest of the HOTD cast as the story continues.

This part of the story is for those who wanted to know what happened to the rest of the PMC's of BLUE and GREEN Team as well as what happened to Rika during the fight at "The Floating Airport."

"Andrew's story is a collaboration effort by poynton90 who actually wrote this portion of the story and who created his OC, "Andrew," for "Last Alarm".

Using his character and telling his story is a sincere honor for me to use this story from a new friend made overseas as well as a great honor for me to include an elite Unit in my story that I have always highly respected, The British Special Air Service, a unit that I first heard about back in the 80's when I was interested in the SEAL Teams.

As a matter of fact, if anyone recognizes the use of the name "RED Troop", that is because the members of the fictional "RED Troop" from the UK TV series "Ultimate Force" will be making an appearance later. So be looking forward to seeing "Henno," "Jaime," "Pete," "Ricky," "Col. Dempsey," and the rest of "RED Troop" from Season One to be making an appearance.

If anyone has not seen that show, I highly recommend it. Few shows or stories exist about the SAS, and that show is definitely a good one.

So for all in the UK reading this story my sincerest thanks for your support of my story and I just wish to say how happy I am to include my neighbors from "across the pond" in my story as well!

And I also wish to thank all of my overseas fans from whatever nation you're from. Thank you all!

Poynton90's OC Andrew, plays a major role in "Last Alarm", especially after meeting Shizuka and Alice which will be in a story yet to follow.

So as you read this chapter, please offer your kind reviews towards him for his creative efforts if you please.

* * *

Following this chapter will be Rika's point of view as Andrew is spotted running around the airport and then quite possibly, the story will continue with Saeko giving her version of what happens after the HOTD crew is captured and the fate of Jim, as I try to alternate between what happens at the airport and what happens on the mainland before the EMP.

And by the way, for those who are wondering, my OC is named "Jim".

"Jim-u" is just a pronunciation that I've heard some Japanese people use when trying to say my name in person and when it has been used in motion pictures.

"Jimu-san" is what I've heard used as opposed to "Jim-san." So I incorporated the usage of my name in that way for the story.

Although to Alice, I'll always be "Ojiichan" (T_T)

* * *

My last name is being kept secret in the story because I am still an active full-time career Firefighter and don't want my "brothers" in Emergency Services, **especially** the Fire Service to know who it is actually writing this story. I'm the butt of enough practical jokes as it is, thank you.

After I retire or they decide to make this story into a movie, then I'll consider posting it. (^_^)

Again thank you for your continued support, and I'll be working on the next chapter with poynton90's help.

* * *

And to all of the brave men of the SAS, my sincerest respect to all of you "Boys from Hereford".

"Who Dares Wins."

Damn straight.


	23. Chapter 22-The Man From Hereford Part 2

Last Alarm

Chapter Twenty-Two

"The Man from Hereford-Part Two."

"Rika's Story"

Written by Poynton90

* * *

The Japanese Special Assault Team or Tokushu Kyūshū Butai, is a paramilitary counter terrorism unit under the command of the Japanese National Police Agency. The SAT is mandated for counterterrorism missions and incidents involving firearms or criminals which require an armed response beyond the capabilities of local law enforcement in Japan.

On April 1, 1996, the Special Assault Team was established after a one year training period with the German Counterterrorism Unit GSG 9, French CT Unit GIGN, and the British Special Air Service.

Among their many roles as a specialized unit, the SAT sniper stands out as one of the more difficult roles that an officer can achieve. And after the rigorous training involved is completed, those that have managed to achieve that difficult and much coveted assignment have earned a special place among their ranks.

A popular joke amongst those in the world of the Sniper is, "Run, and you'll only die tired."

While humorous, the joke indeed has a grim impact on those who find themselves on the wrong end of a sniper's crosshairs. Trained to move in stealth and capable of killing from long distances, the sniper has long been a valuable asset in each of the world's Militaries, and is one of the most highly skilled warriors in military history.

The sniper is also one of the most feared and most hated of enemies that anyone who has served in the military has ever known. There are few in the world eager to fight a sniper, which is an enemy that cannot be seen, and kills without warning, leaving anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the crosshairs no way of defense once the sniper has acquired his target.

The psychological effect of an unseen sniper on its quarry is without question the most unnerving experience a soldier can experience. Some who have survived being under fire from such a cold, merciless enemy have even claimed they would even prefer the shelling of heavy artillery, or aerial bombardment, over being the hunted quarry of a lone sniper team.

In the police world, the sniper is just as feared and hated by those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law and the crosshairs of the Police sniper. But without question, the police sniper like its military counterpart, have proven invaluable, especially in cases of hostage rescue.

While the urban setting prevents the need for long range precision shots like the military sniper with most shots in the urban setting rarely being over 50 yards, routinely. The high level of precision is still expected and maintained by snipers in all Emergency Tactical Units throughout the world.

While most snipers prefer to remain unseen and unmoving, the Police sniper must be able to move and shoot from any number of locations and positions as the mission demands, sometimes on the run. Adding to the stress is the constant concern of accidentally wounding an unarmed civilian in the midst of a high tension situation.

* * *

Location: Tokonosu International Airport "The Floating Airport"

Gate #5 Roof of Passenger Walkway - Sniper Team "Dahlia" On Site

Time: Z day Plus Two

The Contagion had spread unchallenged for several hours before any type of warning had been activated. And once the call had been given to activate all Airport Security and mobilize the Special Assault Team for a possible terrorist attack, it was already far too late.

When the initial assault team had been deployed to the report of possible "terrorist activity" at Hangar #7, they had almost became victims themselves if not for the keen eye of their Team Leader, who had spotted the shuffling Infected as they closed in on the arriving assault team. They had arrived to find the entire area swarming with workers infected by the unknown Contagion, and seeing the seriousness of their situation, had beat a hasty retreat to re-group and plan for the impossible scenario that had developed in their own backyard. A scenario no Military or Police force ever imagined possible.

By the time any sort of direct action could be taken however, the Contagion had proven to be more widespread than previously believed. And it was all the small group of Airport Security officers and the even smaller band of elite SAT Operatives could do to contain the multiple outbreaks that kept recurring throughout the island.

Spreading faster than they could contain it, and without any help from the Mainland, eventually the small Police Force proved unable to deal with the Infection and the mass hysteria that came with it.

Section by section, building by building, all eventually fell to the onslaught of airport workers and traveling civilians who became infected by the Contagion, until at last only the Main Terminal and the Main runways remained free of the Infected, and even that, just barely being held by the steadily decreasing Security Force.

But as time passed and their numbers dwindled from the mounting casualties, it was only a matter of time before the small remaining force was overrun.

And they all knew it.

Now on the second day of the Outbreak, the Airport Security Forces and the SAT had paid dearly for the small patch of ground they now defended off the coast of Japan. And despite their best efforts, they were still steadily losing ground and personnel as the numbers of the Infected seemed to continue to grow, as the small group of defenders and their ammunition dwindled.

But still to a man, they fought on.

* * *

High atop of one of the many passenger walkways that normally would be used to connect to an awaiting passenger jet, a pair of SAT Special Operations snipers had set up their observation nest.

One of them, an officer named Tajima, who was serving as spotter for the sniper, was sitting up on the roof while peering through a Leupold Spotting scope/Laser Rangefinder busily acquiring targets for Sgt, Rika Minami, the lead sniper and Team Leader, as she lay on belly on the roof next to him.

SAT sniper Sgt. Rika Minami, was lying prone on top of the walkway with her Heckler & Koch PSG-1 A1 7.62-millimetre high-precision sniper rifle in her arms. Lying prone is still very much the favored position of the sniper which helps to reduce fatigue and helps to steady the rifle for improved accuracy. However, after hours in the same position staring through a small tube without letup is a strain that will eventually tire the best efforts of any sniper, Police or Military.

Sgt. Minami had been lying on her stomach for the better part of the last six hours and was more than ready for a break, to be able to stand up and stretch a little.

Being able to take a break is an enormous luxury for a sniper, who can seldom afford to do so without removing their eye from their scope while in the field.

One of the most important skills a sniper must have besides stealth and resolve is patience, because it may be hours or days before an opportunity may present itself for a sniper to make that one all-important shot, and even a quick glance to relieve eye strain can result in a missed opportunity.

However, since the quarry of the SAT Team was the slowly shuffling Infected and not an enemy soldier trying to evade them, a break was exactly what the doctor ordered Rika thought, as she looked away from her scope and looked over at her spotter who was still focused on scanning for targets through his Leupold combination Spotting Scope/Laser Rangefinder.

And even without saying anything aloud for her partner to hear, she knew he was thinking about her breasts that were being squished after lying prone for so long, Rika knew.

"The perv." She thought to herself.

* * *

Like her spotter, Rika had been also scanning the tarmac trying to spot targets that posed an imminent threat to either breaching the Main Terminal Building or trying to shuffle out onto the Main runway where aircraft where still arriving and taxiing from.

As huge and powerful as a passenger airliner is, damage from striking a human body during take-off would still be disastrous, and now with the Main runway being the only one still under Police control, it was even more vital that it be protected at all costs.

Although considering the current cargo of passengers being transported all morning, Sgt. Minami wouldn't have minded at all if a plane did crash as horrible as one might have thought that would sound coming from a Police officer.

But all things considered, especially to those trying to flee for their lives, they might have wholeheartedly agreed with the beautiful SAT sniper after watching the type of people that were being flown off to safety while the rest of the populace were pushed back.

Rika wanted to shake her head in disgust as another jetliner roared down the runway and flew into the air leaving with another load of politicians and high-class executive types and their families.

It never ceased to both amaze and disgust Rika on the priorities of the higher ups when a mandatory evacuation order was given.

Those in positions of wealth and power were the first to be whisked to safety, followed by the rest of the hysterical passengers left, if the Airport wasn't completely overrun by then. And then MAYBE they could be airlifted if there was any chance they'd still be alive once the last plane taxied down the runway.

* * *

"How come the politicians and the wealthy are the only ones being able to leave the country while the civilians are being left behind?" Rika thought bitterly. "What made the so-called "elite" any more a priority to escape the area than the civilians that remained trapped behind? "

The sight of all those arrogant people in their expensive clothing and high-priced jewelry along with their equally richly dressed families squabbling and complaining about being so inconvenienced as not to be treated to first-class accommodations while regular civilians were pushed back away from the waiting jets made her blood boil.

But being the professional that she was, Rika pushed the emotions back down, knowing that as hypocritical as the whole situation was, the time for such thoughts no matter how justified had no place right now and would only serve to distract her.

And so as she continued her duty of keeping the runways clear of all obstacles, the crosshairs of her scope fell on a target that she could at least now somewhat vent her frustrations on.

* * *

"Yuck, what a scumbag." She muttered as she spotted an Infected in expensive clothing who seemed to be smiling as it fiddled with a pair of broken glasses that had somehow not fallen off of his face.

While all the Infected had become mindless killing machines with no higher brain function than to kill and eat, this one seemed to have had so much of an ego in life, that even now despite being without conscious thought, this particular Infected person still seemed extremely focused on its appearance.

"He was an actor from Seoul that came along with the rest of a film crew all the way from South Korea to do some filming." Tajima replied, as he also spotted the same target Rika had noticed, not taking his eyes from the spotting scope. He then pressed the button for the laser on the scope which gave him the exact range to the target that he would relay to Rika.

"Range: two hundred and twenty-five meters, no wind change, cleared to engage when ready." He told his partner.

Rika slightly licked her lips slightly as she delicately placed her finger on the sniper rifle's hair-trigger and slowly squeezed.

Instantly, the 7.62x51mm round shot straight through the air and slammed into the former actor's forehead.

Correction, it hit right between his eyes, blowing out the back of his head in a spray of blood and brain matter, the impact of the hand-loaded round knocking him to the ground in a heap.

The full metal jacketed, boat-tailed .308 round snapped the frames of the glasses the Infected celebrity had been wearing in half, with both lenses hitting the ground at the same time, just seconds before the body crumpled next to them in a heap.

Almost as quickly but no less accurately, four more shots were fired from Rika's sniper rifle now that the range had proven correct and the Infected, which once posed a risk to the large winged aircraft attempting to lift off, ceased to be a risk anymore.

Once again the SAT snipers had seen to the security of the terminal, with deadly results.

* * *

"All targets eliminated, clear to proceed." Tajima spoke into his throat mike and listened to the reply in his earpiece from the radio that transmitted straight to the temporary Central Command Center that was now currently housed in the Main Terminal building, the only secure building left.

After a short while, the two SAT officers watched as three shuttle buses transporting dozens of airport workers, filed out of the Main Terminal building with an armed escort of SAT personnel , all of them dressed in the aircraft "Crash" gear of the Airport Fire Services and breathing from *SCBA's as they moved the bodies away from the runway to be disposed of afterwards.

*SCBA- Self Contained Breathing Apparatus

Tajima sighed as the small convoy approached. Like Rika, he was in bad need of a break himself.

Just as he was about to stand up and stretch his legs Tajima heard his partner Rika stand up next to him and gazed at her as she slowly stretched her arms as the sun's rays shone down upon her, seeming to blanket her with a glowing aura.

"You okay?" Tajima asked her casually, slightly mesmerized by the sight of the extremely attractive sniper, but then suddenly choked as his eyes went wide when she unfastened her body armor and started massaging her breasts.

"Uhh, what are you doin'?" Tajima asked with a large grin on his face and certain thoughts entering his mind as he watched her seemingly to be fondling herself.

"The "little ones" were going numb, since I've been lying on them all morning" Rika replied as she stretched once again and continued to massage her boobs.

"Oh. Well ya know, I could massage them for ya.'" He said with a cheeky grin spread across his face.

To most people, the comment would have had many screaming "sexual harassment" and demanding immediate justice.

However, among the two team members this was only playful banter, one of many times the two friends had engaged in such playfulness in the years they'd worked together as a team.

The two shooters had been partners for the better part of the last three years now and had gotten to know each other extremely well. So Rika knew there was no malice in Tajima's offer to massage her boobs.

In fact, Rika gave as well as she got, most of the time.

"Maybe I would allow you… **if**; you were a better sniper than me." Rika replied, putting emphasis on the "IF" with a toothy grin as she unzipped her BDU's, exposing her white sports bra and allowing the "little ones" to breathe.

"Who are you kidding, what do I rank at anyway, twentieth place, and what are you, second?" He asked aloud whilst sighing as he stood up beside her.

"Then don't bother asking," she replied again with a smile, as she enjoyed the cool breeze wafting over them.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted as the sound of gunfire echoed across the airfield, causing both of them to lose interest in joking any further.

* * *

Both SAT officers immediately resumed their shooting positions as before, carefully scanning the open tarmac for the source of the shot from either another sniper team, or a possible threat from an unseen shooter.

Rika shuddered slightly as she peered through her scope reacting to the fact that her chest was now exposed to the cold metal beneath her breasts as she flipped off the safety of her sniper rifle.

"You hear anybody call in that they were under attack or shooting for any reason at all?" Rika asked Tajima as she listened closely to her earpiece as reports from the other teams sounded over the airwaves from their checking in but nothing about the gunshots they had heard.

"Not a thing." Tajima replied. "Want me to check in?"

"Not yet, maybe just one of the Airport cops busting caps or something like that, perhaps." Rika said aloud. "Let's wait till we see something, I hate to report something without confirming what it is."

"I hear ya." Tajima replied as he scanned the tarmac.

Rika carefully scanned over the airfield with her PSG-1 A1 whilst Tajima searched intently as well, using his Leupold spotting scope, attempting to find the source of the gun shots.

"I don't see anything," Tajima reported as he continuously scanned for the source of the gunfire beginning to grow frustrated at finding nothing.

"Keep searching, those shots definitely weren't from the other team out on the other side of the airfield. Take a look." Rika replied pointing towards the cleanup crew who had immediately ducked behind the buses after the first shot.

Tajima grunted and kept searching through his scope and found the cleanup crew along with their protective detail of security personnel hurriedly jumping back into the bus and beating a hasty retreat back to the Main terminal.

"My heroes." Tajima thought with amusement.

"Those shots obviously weren't from a police thirty-eight caliber service revolver; they sounded more like a nine-millimeter semi-automatic." Rika stated out loud to her partner.

"Are you sure? Those shots sounded pretty muffled to me." Tajima replied as he continued to scan the area.

"Although it didn't really sound like suppressed gunfire either. It sounded almost as if…" Tajima trailed off as he looked down towards the auxiliary runway that ran next to the Main runway itself.

"As if it came from underground." Rika finished, frowning as she pondered her last comment.

* * *

"The utility tunnels." Rika and Tajima said together as they both looked towards the grate cover nearby that led down an access way to the utility tunnels beneath the runways.

"But SAT and the other police units are forbidden to be down there right now with the amount of Infected infesting them. And both access points from here and the Mainland have been closed off, so why would there be…" Tajima began, until Rika immediately cut him off as she suddenly raised her hand, stopping him in mid-sentence.

"There it goes again." Rika said as they could both hear the sound of muffled gunfire coming from underneath the tarmac.

"Something's telling me that the gunfire doesn't belong to any of our people..…" Rika stated as she trailed off herself and then looked Tajima square in the eye.

"Remember last night when there was that "ALERT" for that report of "terrorist activity", out at Hangar#7, which was the whole reason we came out here in the first place?" Rika asked Tajima, leaving the question hanging in the air.

He gave her a funny look before it finally clicked.

"You think it could be one of the…" He began to say before he trailed off again.

Honestly, Rika thought, he was getting worse with trailing off from the conversation, leaving questions hanging in the air. It was beginning to be as annoying as watching one of those really bad TV cop shows where everyone is so overly-dramatic in the way they talked.

* * *

"Yes." she calmly replied as she pushed the *PTT button on her radio to contact Command.

*(PTT- Push-To-Talk)

"Sakura, this is Dahlia. Come in."

"Dahlia, this is Sakura. Go ahead." Came the immediate reply from the Command Center.

"Sakura, Dahlia is reporting possible shots fired around the vicinity of the West Wing near Hangars #11 thru Hangar #22." Rika transmitted.

"Affirmative, Dahlia." The voice on the other end acknowledged. "Do you have a visual?"

"Negative, Sakura." Rika replied. "Still searching, but no visible shooters yet."

"Roger that, Dahlia." The officer on the other end replied. "Do you want us to send you some back-up?"

"Negative, Sakura." Rika replied, looking directly at Tajima who just shrugged. "Will advise if we make contact and back-up is needed."

"Roger Dahlia." The voice replied. "Keep us advised. Sakura out."

As Rika was calling in the incident, she and Tajima continued to scan the airfield with their scopes.

And just as she had finished transmitting to Command, Tajima spotted someone moving near the hangars at the far end of the airfield directly across from their position.

"Hey, I think I got something." He told Rika, immediately gaining her attention.

"Where?" she asked as she peered through the rifle's scope.

"Eleven O'clock. Right next to hangar #19 on the "D" side. There's a grate opening between Hangar #18 and Hanger #19." He replied as he pressed the "Range" button on the combination spotting scope/laser rangefinder.

"Got him." Rika confirmed as she turned the focus knob on her scope attempting to sharpen the image.

"Call it in." Rika ordered as Tajima transmitted to Command each detail of the obvious foreigner trying to make his way across the hangars and also trying to avoid detection from the Infected on the far end of the airfield.

* * *

Peering through the eyepiece of the Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 Police Marksman II Scope Rika studied her target. From what she could see, the figure emerging from the grate and setting it back in place was that of a male, early to mid-thirties, tanned skinned, with a muscular build, standing at possibly six foot five inches tall, with dark brown hair, cut short, and wearing sunglasses that were covering his eyes.

And after a moment, she then spotted what appeared to be a white string running from under the left lenses of the glasses along with the jagged red scar running from the left eye.

He was wearing clothing that seemed to be a mixture of civilian and military attire that included a dark green tee shirt that fit snugly to his large frame, a pair of light grey cargo pants with the bottoms tucked into a pair of desert tan combat boots. Over the shirt that he wore he had a large black flak jacket that covered his upper body and a tan combat vest over that.

Most of the vest was covered in all different types of equipment tucked into individual pouches. And over his chest was a holstered semi-automatic pistol with a large combat knife sheathed right beside it. On the lower section of his vest were dozens of large pouches for rifle magazines for an assault rifle, but as she looked closely at the man, she saw no rifle or carbine of any type on his person.

"Command advises to standby and keep reporting his movements." Tajima replied, even though Rika had already heard the reply from Command over her own earpiece. "They're sending a team over to our position to link up with us so we can try to capture him."

"Roger that." Rika replied as she kept close watch on the man through her scope.

Tajima scanned the stranger through his spotting scope which was much more powerful than the rifle scope on Rika's weapon and thus, he was able to make out better details of their quarry. As he watched the man skulking behind the aircraft hangars, he noticed some details of interest on the man as he stealthily moved around the empty buildings.

"Aside from the single semi-automatic he's carrying I don't see any other firearms on his person, except for that large combat knife attached to his vest." Tajima said aloud as he watched the stranger slowly beginning to jog along the buildings while still keeping low towards the hangars down the runway.

"I can see he's carrying spare munitions for a rifle of some sort but as you said, he's not carrying anything else." Rika stated without taking her eyes off the man. "Maybe he stashed the rest of his gear, perhaps?"

"More than likely." Tajima replied. "Either that or he lost it somewhere."

Rika nodded in agreement as she continued to watch the foreigner. The distance and the man's movements made it hard for Rika to make out any other details about the man when suddenly, something clicked in the back of her head.

For some reason, something about the man was extremely familiar.

* * *

The way he moved was not as someone just trying to avoid the Infected. This man's movements were precise, purposeful, swift and silent. He was purposefully avoiding the Infected as if they could see him.

"But of course he has no reason to hide." Rika thought to herself.

The Infected were blind, and while she wasn't any physician or any other type of medical expert, she still had several theories as to why the Infected couldn't see anyone and only reacted to sound, which would explain why she had seen several of them attack each other earlier.

Her best hypothesis was that something about the body's electrical impulses may have been affected by the Contagion, so that when the body died from the infection, the Infected were reanimated physically, although perhaps not "everything" in the brain was switched back on, once the body was revived.

So they were still "alive" basically. But now just deaf, dumb, and dangerous as hell.

Rika continued to watch the lone foreigner as he made his way along the hangars until he came to a stop near the final hangar, and paused to look about as if searching for something, as she could plainly see him scanning around the grass next to the large building he was standing beside.

She then watched, as a small grin spread across his face as he slowly walked forward and picked something up from the grass and she could see that it was a large black backpack, carrying what appeared to be a compact pump-action shotgun attached to the side of the pack in a black sleeve.

"Subject now has a weapon." Rika replied aloud as Tajima grunted in response and pressed the PTT button attached to his combat vest.

"Sakura, this Dahlia." Tajima transmitted over his throat mike. "Confirming that subject is now heavily armed. We can visibly see a shotgun on the subject's field pack as well as a handgun."

"Dahlia, this Sakura." The two shooters heard over their earpieces. "Confirming subject is now heavily armed with shotgun and sidearm."

"Are you requesting back-up at this time?" Came the transmission over their radios.

"What do you think?" Tajima asked as she felt his eyes on her. With the man now confirmed to be armed, he definitely now posed a visible threat to everyone.

"Our orders at or briefing were to call in any suspicious movement and fire on any Infected threatening the runway." Rika replied keeping the man firmly in the crosshairs of her PSG-1 A1 sniper rifle. "And we were also advised to look out for this man and call in once we spotted him."

"He's not threatening us or the runway for now." Rika replied. "But if he makes any move towards anyone, I'll open fire."

Tajima nodded grimly. "Opening fire" in Rika's case meant that the man was as good as dead already.

Something then caught Rika's attention as she closely watched the lone gunman.

* * *

"Sakura, this is Dahlia, standby." Rika said looking closer at the man who appeared to be acting strangely.

"Roger that, Dahlia. Standing by." Command replied.

Rika stared closely at the man still stealthily walking near the hangars, as if searching for something.

The man was not just walking haphazardly around the airfield, trying to avoid contact with Airport Security or any of the Infected lurking about.

He was obviously looking around for something, maybe another pack or weapon, perhaps.

From her vantage point Rika couldn't be sure, but it certainly seemed that way from the way he kept moving his head side to side.

After a moment, she then noticed a displeased look on his face as once again, he turned away from her before she could get a good look at him.

Rika kept trying to get a solid look of his face but the sun glasses he wore and his long hair kept her from getting a decent look at his facial features, frustrating her. There was indeed something familiar about the man, but Rika was unable to get a good enough look at the man's face to make a positive I.D.

As the man's efforts to try to find whatever it was he was looking for increased, Rika then followed the direction the man was looking towards and spotted a small horde of Infected wandering around on the tarmac near the runway.

Finally, after looking a little past the area near the small group of Infected workers, she spotted one of the Infected shuffling away from the rest, dragging what appeared to be a shortened rifle by its shoulder strap that somehow had gotten caught around the Infected worker's ankle.

"I believe I've found the subject's primary weapon but one of the Infected's dragging the weapon away from his position." Rika said out loud for her partner to hear as she then directed him where to look.

"Looks like a Mk18 battle carbine with some serious modifications." Tajima replied admiring the weapon on the ground.

She looked at Tajima for a second before he noticed she was looking at him.

"What?" He asked, puzzled at her staring at him.

"This could be bad," she finally told him, as she looked back through her scope.

"Roger that." Tajima replied as he pressed the PTT button of his radio.

"Sakura, come in Sakura, this is Dahlia over," Tajima hailed in his earpiece radio.

"This is Sakura, go ahead Dahlia." Came the response from Command.

"Sakura, this is Dahlia, we have made a possible I.D. of the suspected terrorist that was reported at the shooting incident yesterday at Hangar #7. Subject is currently positioned beside hangar # 12 at the far east of the runway, and has evidently reacquired all his weapons." Tajima replied, as Rika listened over her own comm unit while keeping the now heavily armed man in her crosshairs.

"Roger that Dahlia, wait one." Came the quick response.

Both of the SAT operatives waited for several moments before a response finally transmitted over their earpieces.

"Dahlia, this is Sakura. Come in." Rika heard over her earpiece.

"Sakura, this is Dahlia. Go ahead." Tajima transmitted.

"Orders from Command are, link up with the ground team headed your way and bring subject in for questioning, Dahlia team." Came the reply from Command.

"If unable to detain, you have permission to use deadly force. Ground team is enroute to your location and already been briefed and has already been issued the same orders." Command replied.

"Shit," Rika hissed as she momentarily lost sight of the man who had slipped behind one of the hangars. After a few minutes of nerve-racking suspense she relocated the man who was now sitting beside Hangar #12.

He had managed to reacquire the carbine somehow, and now that he had retrieved his main battle weapon in hand she knew that made him even more of a threat now.

If there was a way to convince the man to surrender his arms peacefully once the other team arrived, then Rika would have been more than happy to try. However, even with the ground team to back them up, the chances of them apprehending the heavily-armed foreigner quietly without getting involved in a prolonged firefight was going to be tricky if the man refused to surrender peacefully.

And with the tarmac infested with Infected everywhere, it just didn't seem like it was going to be worth the risk trying to apprehend the man quietly.

If it came down to it though,if the situation turned hostile, then it was either his life or theirs, Rika surmised, and being the team leader, she knew what decision she would make if she or anyone of her teammates lives were at risk if the stranger wished to fight.

Frowning, she aimed the crosshairs of her scope over the stranger's chest, when suddenly; the man looked up and stared directly at her.

* * *

"What the…" Rika said in surprise, but was cut off as the report of a rifle reached their ears, obviously from one of the other sniper teams that had fired at the foreigner prematurely. She then looked back through her scope, but saw that the man was now gone.

Not seeing any blood or a body lying near the hangar where he had been, Rika then surmised that the shot had more than likely missed its target, which meant the man was now on the run and also knew that he was being pursued.

Rika cursed, knowing that now the element of surprise was now gone, and that the hunters might very well be the hunted now, thanks to the poorly aimed shot from the other team.

Rika and Tajima continued to scan near the spot where the man had disappeared, and for a few agonizing minutes nothing happened until she saw a flash of movement between the hangars.

"Crap, he's leap frogging." Rika thought.

She knew the other teams would be keeping an eye out for the man's location but she doubted they could see where he was, and there was no way to get them to abandon their posts to come help them either.

The situation was now a very deadly game of cat and mouse.

For more than half an hour there was no movement whatsoever from either the sniper teams or the man down on the tarmac.

It was now all about patience, in a game where the first one to make a mistake was going to end up dead.

While everyone was laying low and trying to outwit each other, the assault team that Command had sent out finally arrived. The game had now greatly increased in danger, now that all its players were forced to seek each other out at ground level amongst a growing crowd of shuffling monsters.

Rika slung her sniper rifle over her shoulder in favor of her secondary combat weapon, a heavily modified five-five-six millimeter HOWA 'M4' Carbine. Tajima was also armed, carrying a HOWA Type 89-F assault rifle with an attached laser sight.

Once everyone was ready, the assault team's size consisted of ten people, six men and four women, all of them SAT operatives. They were taking no chances with this possible hostile.

It took them several minutes for them to arrive near the line of hangars opposite from their former position after passing through the terminal, and wading through dozens of scared survivors, families, individuals and other civilians.

They then made their way through one of the loading bays meant for luggage tugs that would load the passenger's luggage onto aircraft for flights traveling either outbound.

Once there, they met up with an Airport Security officer wearing a kevlar vest over his uniform shirt and held his revolver in a Weaver Stance, pointed out at the hangars as he waited for the operatives to arrive, and evidently not all that happy with his current assignment.

"As soon as I open this gate you move it, because once you're out there I'm locking this damned gate, got it!?" He told them obviously not wanting to be outside longer than necessary.

There had always been a somewhat tense rivalry between the Airport Police and the SAT, and now with this officer showing just how frightened he was, and how little he cared about anyone else's welfare, Rika couldn't hide the smirk that broke out across her face at the officer's remark.

"A shining example to the Force you are." Rika said sarcastically under her breath.

As the gate opened it rattled and groaned loudly, causing everyone to wince at the loud racket of the poorly maintained gate. And as if on cue, a group of Infected shuffling nearby all turned in the direction of the noise and attracted by the sound, started heading towards them.

Left with little choice but to defend themselves, the assault team opened up with suppressed gunfire and cut them down, dropping them to the ground like sacks of potatoes.

Now clear, the team of ten SAT Operatives then quickly moved out onto the airfield and towards the lone gunman's location, hoping to still detain him if possible.

It was only when they arrived at his last known position that Rika had reported, that the team came across an alarming sight. There were literally more than a dozen bodies on the ground, all of them of the Infected.

"How did one man do all of this on his own?" One of the other SAT operatives, a man named Tema asked aloud.

"Because I dunna mess about when it comes to killing the Infected." A voice speaking in English with an unmistakable British accent boomed from behind them.

* * *

The SAT team quickly spun around and instantly raised their weapons, aiming them at the man standing behind them.

"Relax kiddies." The man said calmly as he kept his hands away from his weapons. "I'm not the bad guy here, okay?"

"Who are you?!" Rika yelled, as the man turned towards her.

"If you promise not to shoot me love, I'll show you. Fair enough?"

"Go ahead, but SLOW." Rika replied, wondering what the man meant by "showing" them and preparing herself to open fire the second the man made a false move.

Rika kept her aim directly at the man's face as he motioned if he could remove the glasses. She nodded her head in approval, and he slipped them off and tucked them away.

"Oh, SHIT…" Rika and Tajima whispered in unison as the face of an old friend finally came to recognition.

"Andrew." Rika said in a shocked voice.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This is Part 2 of Poynton90's contribution to my story. There will be one more chapter to "Andrew's Story with a sneak peek at what happens at Rika's condo as we return to the group on the Mainland.

As soon as I can, I'll be re-arranging the chapters so that "Andrew's Story" appears just before "Crossroads" so that the timeline coincides with each other the way it does in the anime and the manga.

I was too far along into "Crossroads" and "Alice's Rescue" before I could insert "Andrew's Story" so that's my bad.

I know everyone's anxious to see what happens at Rika's condo, but bear with me, "Andrew" plays a big part in the story and while I'm trying to work on the next chapter, poynton90's contribution is really helping me out with a part of the story I wasn't even going to include originally, but was requested by some of my readers.

So ya'll be sure to give him some love for all his efforts okay?

It's not too late for any of you to let me know what you think should happen to "Jim" and the teens.

Lemmee know what you think before it's too late!

By the way, I have a gallery at deviantart and I have taken photos of all the equipment that Jim uses in the story.

My username there is, of course, FiremanJim.

These are items I actually own and I posted them for everyone in case anyone wanted to know what Jim's weapons and equipment looked like. I still have a LOT more items to take photos of, so check in every now and then. I plan to take some better pics of everything in an outdoor setting as well.

Thanks again for all of ya'll's support and your kind reviews.

Cya soon!


	24. Chapter 23- The Man From Hereford Part 3

Last Alarm

Chapter 23

The Man from Hereford

Andrew's Story Part Three

* * *

The man identified as "Andrew" by the SAT officers kept his hands raised up high in the air as the SAT operatives kept their weapons trained on him. In all his years of experience, he had been in enough situations in the past with multiple firearms being aimed at him to know exactly how to react, and today was no different.

Strike that, of course it was very different.

Unlike before, as an elite member of the British Special Air Service fighting a covert war in countries all over the world, none of his adventures ever involved dealing with cannibalistic Infected humans walking the earth as well as guns from "friendlies" being aimed at him.

No, there was nothing familiar or normal about this day at all. And as he stood there seemingly at the mercy of the Japanese Special Response Team, the former British commando could not help but chastise himself for the predicament he was now in.

"What the hell had I been thinking, allowing myself to get caught whilst on the run?" Andrew thought grimly.

"F_cking idiot." He thought to himself.

Now standing before him were ten people heavily armed people, each of them ready to mow him down with automatic weapons fire in a heartbeat the moment he made any suspicious movement.

They were obviously the Airport Tactical Response Team, made up of four women and six men, all dressed entirely in black and geared up in standard Special Operations gear with a mixed assortment of assault weapons, all of them aimed directly at him.

And from the looks of them, none of them appeared to be afraid to squeeze the trigger either.

Unlike your standard Airport Security, these guys weren't just here to keep the public in line and give directions to the nearest *"loo" either.

And obviously, none of these people were rookies at their job either.

They were a shit-hot assault team, and one wrong move from him and he was dead.

(*Loo- British Slang for Toilet or Bathroom)

* * *

Before him stood what Andrew deduced was their Team Leader, a particularly alert and authoritive acting woman with long black hair that had been tied back in a ponytail, and also wearing chrome-lensed Oakley sunglasses that reflected his face right back at him.

Her weapon of choice appeared to be a standard M4 carbine, but upon closer inspection it was actually a Japanese HOWA manufactured Type-89 mocked up to look like an M4. She obviously had good taste in her choice of weaponry and Andrew had to admit, it looked bloody sweet.

"Too bad HOWA didn't export their weaponry abroad." Andrew thought. "They'd have made tons of cash."

Not far away from where they stood, several Infected had emerged from the access tunnels that led to the mainland and were slowly making their way towards them. Seeing the danger, Andrew was about to point at them when the SAT woman removed her glasses and pocketed them away as did the young trooper beside her as they both looked at him in shock.

"Oh, SHIT…" they both whispered in unison, startling him.

"Andrew." The woman said under her breath.

The former SAS Trooper frowned at their response.

He knew 'basic' Japanese while being stationed overseas, which had proven to be of some use and he had kept it up a little after he had left the Army, otherwise he would have been stumped as how to respond to their puzzling remark.

He canted his head slightly to the right as he looked at them, trying to find something in their faces that he could recognize.

"How do I know these two?" He wondered, searching his mind for a distant memory that was lost in his still hazy fog of his past.

"I know them from somewhere, or at least, they sure do seem to know me." Andrew thought, still trying to piece together the shattered remains of his mind.

"They definitely must know me." Andrew thought, by the remark the two had made, and the way they were reacting to him now.

The SAT woman lowered her weapon slightly and approached him cautiously.

Nervously, Andrew took a step back away from her, but still kept his hands where the rest of the team could see them.

"Easy there love. I bruise easy." The mercenary said curtly.

For some reason that Andrew couldn't explain, the SAT woman actually seemed hurt as he moved away from her, causing a flurry of mixed emotions to spring up from him.

"Screw it, why do I even care?" Andrew thought, after seeing her reaction." Right now my immediate priority is escape, not making friends."

And as all eyes and weapons were trained on the foreigner, their attention to their surroundings was left unattended momentarily as they watched the drama unfold between their Team Leader and the armed "terrorist."

As the Infected quietly approached behind the closet SAT officer, who had no idea of his impending death, the Englishman sighed loudly, and slowly pointed his finger towards the Infected quickly approaching.

* * *

"Ya might wanna focus less on me, and more on what's about to nibble your bum, lad." Andrew said with a sigh.

One of the officers with the good sense to look behind and see what he was pointing at, shouted in horror as the Infected reached out towards them.

"Well, guess they've been under a lot lately to have made such a rookie mistake as to not watch their backs." Andrew sighed again.

Deep down Andrew knew he should help them even though another part of him was screaming at him to escape whilst he could.

These people weren't his responsibility; they weren't his team, his men, or his operatives. The ones he had been with and trained over the last four years were the ones he respected, and were his responsibility.

These people were just another obstacle he had to get around.

And as most of the assault team's attention was diverted to the threat behind them, Andrew prepared to turn and run when he was stopped by a small and almost mute voice speaking to him in the back of his mind.

"Dammit, Andrew, have you really turned into such a bastard you no longer care about other people?" It asked him in a harsh tone.

Andrew immediately froze as the voice continued to chastise him.

"Andrew, you know Jim and the others would never respect you if you abandoned these people to die." The voice told him in an almost scolding tone, causing him to react angrily as his former self remerged its ugly head deep within his psyche.

And especially at a time like this, this was something he really didn't want to hear.

"Honestly, why should I care?" He asked aloud, trying to tear himself away from the drama that was about to unfold, as the female Team Leader frowned at his odd outburst.

"BECAUSE YOURE STILL F_CKING HUMAN ANDREW!" The voice now screamed at him.

"Funny you should say that, the last group of people I was with considered me nothing more than a freak and a weirdo." Andrew muttered as he brought his hand up to touch the eye patch covering his left eye.

* * *

Behind the patch the eyeball itself was nothing, just an empty hollow socket. And the skin around it was also discolored after being struck by the IED blast after the last operation in Northern Ireland two years ago.

The covert operation had been codenamed "Pale Fire", for reasons unknown, which he rarely gave a toss about anyway concerning codenames, except for his own and that of his team mates in the field.

His unit had been assigned to work alongside several members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing, which were some of the most feared fighters in the Irish military, and also included in the operation were several members of the British 22nd Regiment SAS.

Unfortunately, instead of the SAS spearheading the operation, the lead on this op came from the Regimental Commander of the Regular Army.

Their Commander Col. Dempsey, had almost refused the assignment, but was pressured into giving in although not without putting up a terrific fight before relenting.

The whole operation had been a complete clusterf_ck , right from the beginning.

While driving towards their Insertion point, Andrew and his team had been pinned down by sniper fire after most of the Irish Special Forces had been taken out by a *PIRA placed *IED.

* (Provisional Irish Republican Army)

* (Improvised Explosive Device).

The SAS had suffered no one being killed in the operation, but they had still sustained heavy casualties, and unfortunately, Andrew's team had been hurt the worst.

Mickey and Bauer had both been taken out with severe wounds by the initial blast of the IED along with most of the Irish Rangers, and while trying to provide cover fire so that the men could be dragged to safety by their comrades, his closest friend Stiles had been shot through the neck by a PIRA sniper.

During those first few minutes of hell Andrew hadn't realized the extent of his own injuries until much later, which were actually quite severe. Like the rest of his team, he too had been caught by the blast, and razor-sharp shrapnel had dug itself deep into his left arm and left leg, causing severe bleeding.

But the most visible damage to his body from the IED had been to his face, where the eye patch did little to cover over the scars that still remained.

Several red lines marked the side of his face now, all directly below the eye where several small metal splinters had completely obliterated the orb.

However, even though he had been so seriously injured in the initial attack, he and his team had still managed to complete the mission.

After forcing the door open and intentionally falling out of the heavily damaged vehicle, he then somehow managed to get back on his feet and then reached inside the now burning Land Rover and pulling out one of the Irish Ranger's Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifles.

While still under intense enemy fire from various small arms, he then raised the weapon to his shoulder, and aimed the device at the house where the terrorist's had been hiding and let loose a round, and then quickly reloading the weapon even though he was still bleeding heavily and experiencing great pain.

After a few moments the house was then completely decimated after he fired three more rounds from the launcher along with all the weapons fire of those left standing of his team who then opened up with their weapons, covering him.

After it was all over he had then been whisked away along with the rest of his wounded comrades to a nearby military hospital where he spent weeks recovering from his wounds.

The operation had been covert, and thus, he was awarded no medals or citation. Instead, he was awarded with a kick in the rear without so much as a thank you.

Now years later after leaving The Regiment, this security contract to Africa as a PMC was his first mission back into the field after being in the hospital for all that time. And after that, the psychological healing took time for him to recover from as well with the help of several of his team mates.

Jim being one of them. The former fireman was one of the few he really trusted back at Laid Law that had helped him through that most difficult time in his life

Well, **one** of the most difficult times in his life anyway.

His life after he had been wounded was an extremely difficult period of his life to endure after he was out of the hospital and tried to return to The Regiment.

But not as hard as it was after suffering the loss of his wife and child.

* * *

What had made it especially difficult to leave the military was that there had been a lot of talking behind his back about his well-being and what hurt even more was that most of the talk came from many of his former teammates on Red Troop.

What all of them wondered was if it was safe for him to go back into the field or not after his incident, especially Pete, his best friend who had also been wounded during an OP once and had taken a long time to recover as well.

Of course, the loudest objector of his returning to the team was Henno, his former Team Leader, which was no surprise to him at all.

Normally, wounds such as his were an immediate removal from being placed on active field duty in the SAS to begin with, but the commanding officer of The Regiment Col. Dempsey, had tried to find some sort of field assignment that he could manage even with the loss of an eye. And so for a brief time, his assignment was as an "interrogator" with some Intelligence agents..

But then the "spooks" and the "head shrinkers" got involved over some of the methods he was using and the way he carried them out, and then Col. Dempsey's hands were tied.

After being advised that he was no longer approved for active status in the SAS, the wounded warrior then told both the medical staff and the psychiatrist that they could go to hell if they even thought about shelving him and sticking him behind a f_cking desk for the rest of his career.

Which unfortunately, was exactly where he went.

So for the better part of two years he was stuck behind a desk whilst his wounds healed and he pushed himself to get back to top fighting form.

And then after word came from up the chain of Command that his career in the Army as well as The Regiment was over, he then turned in his papers in disgust and left.

After leaving the Army and working as a bodyguard and sometimes mercenary, Andrew had all but become a shadow of his former self until a friend helped him get hired with the rest of some old Special Operations friends at the newly formed Private Military Security Company, Laidlaw.

And even though he was back among some of his old friends that he had served with and trusted, the former SAS trooper was a still a bit stand-offish with his other teammates unless they were all deployed on a mission Even his closest friends became wary around him, all of them somewhat shocked in the drastic changes evident in the former SAS Trooper.

That was up until several months ago when he first met Jim.

* * *

Andrew remembered the day he met the former Firefighter turned combat medic.

It wasn't exactly a formal introduction when they first met, and by most civilian's point of view, it would have been thought insane, and most would have run away after it.

But by the end of it, it had been quite funny to watch the man's reaction after it was all over Andrew thought with a smile. He hadn't been expecting the big man to react like that at all.

At first when the burly latino had arrived at Laid-Law's private training grounds, Andrew had been watching the man and their commanding officers through a set of bino's keeping all of them in his sights, just like everyone else in the complex was doing, trying to get a closer look at their new "teammate".

Observing the ex-fireman from afar, Andrew and a couple of other GREEN Team operators were gearing up for a little "hello" for their newly hired teammate, so to speak.

They waited patiently until J.R., the Team Leader of GREEN Team and Jim walked up to the Kill House on a little tour of the training facility.

And right after J.R. excused himself to go to the *"head" and then left Jim alone in the room by himself, Andrew and two other team members of GREEN Team suddenly struck.

To scare the hell out of the "newbie", they set off a couple of breaching charges that blew the door lock off the door and then kicked the door in as the three-man assault team then rushed into the room with MP5 sub-machine guns in hand, and began double-tapping the paper and wood targets all around the surprised recruit.

After the "exercise" was completed and everyone had yelled "CLEAR!", Andrew had expected to see the big Latino cowering on the floor in a curled up bundle or standing in shock, peeing his pants. But surprisingly enough, the man just stood there looking at them with a look of awe on his face.

"CLEAR!" Andrew barked last whilst still wearing his balaclava. The shooters of GREEN Team then stood quietly by, observing the man's reaction as the ex-fireman turned his head and looked at the grouping of their shots on the targets near him and then looked back at them with a big grin.

Andrew couldn't help but smirk under his mask.

This Yank was all right.

"Guys. THAT WAS SO F_CKING COOL! PLEASE, tell me your gonna teach me to do that?" The rook asked with that large grin still on his face.

J.R. and the other two members of GREEN Team were laughing at the man's remark, but Andrew reservedly just stood there before the stand-in medic with a small smirk on his lips.

"Now for the "real" test." Andrew thought to myself, as he took a breath and grabbed the bib of his balaclava.

He then removed his mask, readying himself for the American's next reaction once he saw Andrew's face and faced one of the horror's and realities of war.

"Depending on how the man reacted now would be the 'deal breaker' for him." Andrew thought, as he removed his mask and the former fireman just looked at him without any reaction.

Andrew didn't see any form of disgust or prejudice once his mask was removed, and it was then Andrew decided that he really liked this guy after all.

"Former Lance Corporal Andrew Poynton, British Twenty-Second Regiment of the SAS. It's a bloody good pleasure to meet you lad." He spoke firmly as he shook the taller man's hand.

* * *

Andrew looked behind him as a terrified scream brought him back from his daydream and back to reality. The SAT operatives were in trouble, and no one was even bothering to worry about him at all, as all of them were now under attack from a huge horde of Infected that were spilling out of the access tunnel in a flood.

The air was filled with the sound of people yelling, guns firing, and that awful moaning that he had been listening to for the past two days.

He now had the opportunity he needed to make a run for it.

But instead, he hesitated.

He was hesitating because his conscience was battling with his battle-hardened instincts as to what he should do and as the screams and gunfire intensified, he knew that he had to make a decision now.

Help the badly outnumbered SAT shooters, or run.

Andrew watched as an SAT officer's weapon ran dry, and as he was trying to reload, a large Infected mechanic suddenly grabbed the policeman as the officer tried to fight back and avoid being bitten by the mechanic whose teeth kept gnashing closer and closer to the policeman's neck.

It was now or never, fight or flight…

…FIGHT.

* * *

Racking the bolt on the carbine he brought it up and aimed the holosight on the Infected mechanic with the EOTech sight and fired.

The single five-five-six millimetre round tore straight through the Infected's forehead that was grappling with the SAT operative who looked at him in shook as the Infected worker that he had been wrestling with fell to the ground in a heap.

"Mind yourself better, lad." Andrew said calmly as he switched his aim to the next target.

Andrew then adjusted his sights and took out the next four with little effort as the Japanese SAT shooters aimed their weapons at the Infected and opened fire on the creatures mowing them down, as they re-composed themselves after their initial surprise at the sudden attack.

"Well, at least I won't have to waste my own munitions as much." Andrew thought.

He then stood behind the officers, as they all raised their weapons and sighted in on the creatures that moved towards them in a slow shambling crowd that quickly grew in size again, walking over their fallen fellows.

Despite the murderous fire, the horde was continuing to grow as the Infected began bursting through the grate that had been sealed over the underground passage to the Mainland in greater numbers as the river of Infected that had crowded the tunnel began flowing out in a greater flood driven into a fury by all the noise.

Andrew could see just how useless it was to stay in their current position any longer.

"FALL BACK YOU F_CKING IDIOTS, FALL BACK!" He screamed at the SAT Team as he turned and ran, reloading his MK18 as he moved.

Several of the officers, including the female Team Leader, actually listened to him amidst all the weapons fire and barked orders to the rest as all of them as they all started pulling back away from the mob of Infected that were pressing in.

As the SAT woman ran back towards him, he stopped as the rest of her team re-grouped and they stood side by side in a skirmish line as they fired single shots at the Infected while they withdrew, striving to be as accurate as possible with their quickly exhausting ammo.

As the SAT operatives pulled back, the "wall' of fire they were making was knocking down scores of Infected, but seemed to have little effect on the multitudes that trampled over their fellows as they tried to get at the small group of people fighting for their lives.

Andrew stood beside the SAT woman as he ejected the empty magazine from his Mark 18 and inserted a fresh magazine and slapped the bolt catch with the palm of his hand.

He then pocketed the empty magazine for later when he had a chance to reload it,** if** he lived to have a chance to reload it, that is.

Andrew did a mental inventory of his munitions as he continued firing in the mass of Infected relentlessly coming at them.

He always carried at least five hundred rounds of munitions easily between his flak jacket and the backpack, as he always liked to be prepared for a firefight. However, at this rate, he'd soon be out of rounds if something didn't happen soon.

And as he looked behind them, Andrew saw to his horror that Infected were beginning to close in on the small group of officers from **all** directions, all of them attracted by the sound of the gunfire.

"SCREW THIS!" He roared. "PEEL! PEEL! PEEL!

* * *

As the SAT looked at him in response to his loud yells, they quickly realized the danger they were in from all sides and under the Team Leader's shouted order, they then began peeling back towards the Main Terminal.

As the rest of the team peeled and fell back, Andrew watched as the SAT woman continued to fire into the horde almost never missing a shot as the Infected continued to drop from her deadly accurate gun fire.

"She's a bloody crackin' shot I'll give 'er that." Andrew thought as he emptied his magazine and then turned to run, reloading as he did so.

"PEELING!" He shouted.

The SAT woman looked at him and nodded as he spun around whilst kneeling and fell back several meters and then, instead of running back to the terminal which was their rally point like the rest of the team, he dropped down on one knee to cover her as the Infected quickly approached her position.

She fired her remaining rounds full-auto into the horde until the bolt on her weapon fell on an empty chamber with a loud "CLICK" and abandoning her shooting position, she then turned heel and ran back towards him, heading for the rally point, surprised to see him kneeling there and covering her escape.

"SET!" He shouted as he began firing single-shot as she ran past him.

"MOVING!" She shouted as she ran past him as he continued firing in single-shot mode until she ran past, and then switched to full-auto, emptying his magazine as he turned to run.

To his surprise now, the SAT woman on the other hand, had not run for the rally point either, but had instead set up a new position roughly ten meters away from him to cover him.

"SET!" She shouted as she slapped another magazine into her rifle and slapped the bolt catch.

"SHIFTING!" He yelled as he slapped another magazine into his carbine. Two mags down and nine to go before he was empty.

Something was telling him he was going to be using a lot more ammo by the end of this day though.

"Should have taken some of those 'Surefire-sixties' with me." He thought as he fired his carbine.

For all he knew there might be a couple of extra magazines in his pack hopefully.

Before they had boarded the plane for the OP to Africa, he had tossed all manner of equipment and gear into his pack for the trip. And now, he berated himself for being so careless in his preparation.

As he fired single shot while the woman peeled back, he had to admit, he was very impressed with the performance of the SAT, especially their female Team Leader.

"She isn't sweating, hasn't cracked under pressure, same goes for that bloke over there too." Andrew thought looking at the man wearing a tan ball cap and standing near the rally point, ready to cover them as soon as they came nearer.

They're both crackin' operators." He thought as he opened fire whilst she ran past him again, reloading her weapon as she ran.

The horde of infected surrounding them however kept on growing despite their best efforts to withdraw, and now and they were starting to surge towards them in force.

"Bollocks," he swore harshly.

* * *

He looked over at the female trooper and nudged her, offering her his carbine.

"Take this, and cover me!" He told her in broken Japanese, hoping she would understand him.

She nodded as she took the rifle and started laying down single shots.

He opened one of the pouches of his vest and pulled out one of his" little surprises" that he kept for just such an occasion.

If Chris, the leader of BLUE Team had known that he had these little beauties in his gear he would have strung him up by the nuts, he chuckled as he pulled out a grenade from his jacket.

In his hand sat a CTS Model 7290 flash bang grenade, nothing special in the explosives department, but it would perform brilliantly for the task he had in mind.

He stood up and darted towards the Infected, hearing the shouts of the officers behind him yelling at him to come back, and ignoring all of them.

He couldn't allow any of these Infected bastards to reach the terminal entrance en mass like this. Once they found the loading bay doors and breached them they were in for some serious shite.

"OI, yeah you lot, you bunch of f_cking puss bags, over 'ere, come on you bunch of pricks got some good ol' British beef right 'ere." He shouted hoping to draw them away from the gates. But to his annoyance the mass of Infected still continued on towards the loading bay.

And small wonder, due to the fact that the SAT officers were still shooting their weapons at the Infected who were all drawn to the sound of all the shooting instead of him.

He waved to the group of SAT officers and yelled "STOP SHOOTING YOU IDIOTS! YOU'RE DRAWING THEM TOWARDS YOU."

Luckily, they heard him and suddenly the gunfire ceased and he turned his attention back to the Infected once again.

"ALRIGHT YOU WANKERS, COME OVER HER AND HAVE A CHEW ON ME YOU F_CKING ROTTERS!" He roared as the sound of his voice was finally picked up by the ears of the Infected now that the sound of gunfire had ceased.

His shout was heard a little too well however, as his shout to the Infected was picked up by every one of "Them" on the tarmac it seemed, as they all suddenly turned and started coming after him.

"THAT'S BETTER, COME ON ARSEHOLES, GOT *SUMMIT GOOD FOR YA," Andrew yelled again.

(*'Summit' is often used in British slang to 'Something')

"Bugger me." He thought grimly as they closed on him.

His plan to have their attention on him so he could draw them away from the terminal and back out towards the field was working, and unnervingly so.

"Allright, time to go." He thought as he turned heel and began to run from the coming onslaught.

As he ran away from the protection of the SAT shooters and the terminal building he made a mental pause to ask himself another question.

"Why am I even doing this? I don't know these people. I don't owe them anything whatsoever, so why should I have to waste my time doing this when I could have gotten away?" He thought to himself as he ran.

And as he pulled the pin from the grenade in his hand, the voice in the back of his head re-emerged.

"Because you know that this is the right thing to do, this is who you are."

"You are a good guy, you always worked for the good guys and these people are good guys, so what the hell more reason do you need?"

For some reason he found it hard to believe his own thoughts however.

Maybe it was the fact that despite the many memories ha had lost after being wounded, he still vaguely remembered that he had trained two squadrons of the Japanese SAT years ago back in Hereford when he was still in the *UKSF and had gone on a training exercise with them in the Welsh mountains, the SAS's old stomping grounds for training "out in the sticks".

(* United Kingdom Special Forces)

Perhaps the real reason that he was fighting for these people was the fact that in a way, they were family after all. Perhaps some of these very same officers had been his former pupils, his former students, his "kids" in a way. And now, they were in danger, and in need of help beyond their own capabilities and experience.

"Aw, hell." The former SAS commando growled as he gave up on trying to find a reason for his motives and let the spoon fly off the grenade and threw the grenade high up into the air and immediately covered his ears and closed his eyes.

* * *

Despite the precaution he took to protect himself from the flash banger, the thundering clap from the grenade hit him hard when it detonated.

Opening his eyes, and looking behind him, he saw that the grenade had the desired effect he was looking for.

Instead of coming for him, the Infected were now stumbling around like a bunch of drunks wandering in all directions, the concussion grenade having done its work as now most of the Infected within the range of the concussive blast were now temporarily stone-deaf from the blast.

Pleased that his desperate plan had worked so well, he then turned toward the terminal building and began to take advantage of the situation and run back towards the SAT officers…

"And then what?" He suddenly thought as he hesitated for a moment.

Be beaten to within half an inch of his life and arrested by the very people he was trying to save? Or could he honestly believe that they would allow him to walk around the airport as he pleased?

It wasn't exactly like he had a lot of options, but he also didn't relish the idea of being left out here with the Infected being chased around like a f_cking chew toy either, Andrew thought.

"Uhh, balls and bugger nuts." He muttered as he quietly made his way back towards the Main Airport Terminal Building now that his path was almost completely free of any Infected who were still mucking about aimlessly.

Any Infected that did get too close to him were either knocked aside by him by merely using his arm to slap their flailing arms aside.

And those that truly began to annoy him fell in a heap with a quick stroke of his MercWorx knife, which completely decapitated them in one stroke with little effort whatsoever.

He was roughly twenty feet away from the SAT woman who was still kneeling where he had left her with his carbine. She looked at him and for a brief second he thought he saw either relief or something matching it cross her face.

"The f_cks you're problem?" He hissed at her as he snatched his rifle away from her before she could even offer it to him.

He didn't have time to play friendly with these people, Andrew thought, so no reason to get sloppy about it.

Even if he had taught these people or their comrades at one time, they still weren't **his **people, **his** team, **his** friends…** his** family.

At least not yet. They had to earn that privilege, and as impressive as they were, they still hadn't earned his trust yet.

He looked back at the SAT officer when he realized she wasn't following. In truth she was following him with her eyes, eyes that seemed distraught, as if she were a child that had been cruelly rejected by her father.

* * *

"ARE YOU GOING TO F_CKING MOVE OR WHAT!" He yelled at her angrily.

The woman then snapped to attention and brought her own rifle up and shouldered it aiming at the Infected nearby, as she just nodded in response without even looking at him.

"F_ck's sake." He muttered to himself as he began walking towards the Main Terminal again.

As he came up and stood in front of the large shutter doors that would lead them back inside the building, he ran his hand over the metal door thinking that the door would be unlocked, but wasn't.

"They locked the door? What the hell?" he growled.

"They've shut us out," He said out loud to the SAT officer as she looked at the door and then back out towards the field where the Infected were now wandering away from them.

But even though they were shuffling away from their position he watched as some started to wander back their way as the female officer spoke into her radio in fluent Japanese, most likely speaking with her superiors.

"Calm down Andrew, just calm down laddy, you've got this; you just got to control yourself." He muttered to himself quietly, his unease of the current situation beginning to grow.

Despite his best efforts, his anger and aggression was getting the better of him now. It was a problem that he had to frequently deal with constantly after he had recovered from his wounds.

While the physical wounds had eventually and painfully healed, his mental and emotional scars were a different story, and he felt ashamed and angry with himself for lashing out at the SAT officer for no good reason.

Although with the doors being locked and now being trapped alone with all the Infected, the circumstances were not helping to improve his mood very much.

His earlier thoughts were conflicting with him now and it was hard to push them back down, as keyed up as he was.

Back in the Army with the British Special Forces his doctor had told him "Suppressing you're emotions is unhealthy, Lance Corporal.".

"No shit, doc." Andrew had retorted.

But suppressing your emotions in the military, much less the SAS isn't really a choice, it's a fact of life, and he had become expert at keeping his emotions in check just like everyone else did.

"Psychiatrists." Andrew thought grimly. "They don't have a clue."

And if the doc had thought suppressing his emotions during his time in The Regiment was bad, then he would have been really concerned over him during the days that followed after his family's death.

And it wasn't just his emotions that were a problem either.

* * *

Later, he began to feel that he became more 'focused' and 'obsessed' on his targets that he was ordered to eliminate when he was assigned to Intelligence.

His increasingly aggressive methods during that assignment brought up quite a cause for concern within the Intelligence community as well as the other members of The Regiment, from the way they began to react around him.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, the way the higher ups were beginning to muck around with his request to return to active status made him finally realize that they really didn't want a loose cannon working for them.

So he quit and saved them the trouble of having to make up some bullshit story for which to try and figure the best way to quietly get rid of him.

So he had tortured a few terrorists in his time, who the hell hadn't in the Special Forces or "Intelligence" when the orders come directly from the head of MI5 and MI6 Central Intelligence Agencies?

Up until now, he had been their "go to guy" for information. And now they wanted to cut him loose because they were afraid of what? Bad Publicity? Human rights violations?

"Don't make me laugh." He thought as he turned his attention back to the problem at hand.

* * *

Andrew glanced over at the female SAT officer as he covered them both as they waited for the gate to open.

The SAT Team Leader was having a fit, screamed into her radio whilst kicking the metal shutter in frustration at being ignored.

He couldn't help but have a sly grin pass over his features.

But as he crouched down and hissed at her to hush down he heard her quietly speaking into her throat mike, and the words he heard caused his face to frown in suspicion.

Luckily he had remembered enough from his Japanese language course back in the Army to understand her words.

"Tajima-kun, it's him, it's really him. You remember that CQB training in England?" she spoke softly.

"How can I forget Rika-san, especially after "The Incident?" Tajima replied in her earpiece. "But, does he even know who we are? When he looked at us both he seemed to have no idea who we were at all."

Rika stopped talking abruptly as she noticed the man was staring closely at her.

"Are they going to let us in then, or what?" He asked before turning his attention back to the airfield.

"Chotto matte, kudasai." The woman replied as she continued to speak into her radio, albeit in a louder tone this time.

As he looked back out towards the airfield, he started thinking about what the woman had been had been saying under her breath to the person on the receiving end of her covert radio transmission.

"What are they on about? Did we meet at some point?" He wondered, trying to place her face amongst the many he had trained over the years and drawing up a blank.

He looked back at her as she nodded to herself after she finished talking with her companion. She hadn't looked at him yet but he guessed she knew he was watching her the way she avoided looking into his face.

No,I don't know her, and it's not like it's gonna matter much. I have no intention of staying here anyway." He thought as he stood up and walked back towards her.

"What's the deal then love, we on the move or what?" He asked her whilst scanning for threats.

When she didn't respond straight away, he looked at her face more closely, curious as to why she seemed so hesitant to look at him.

"Oi, anyone home?" He asked as he smacked the back of her head, rudely gaining her attention with a scowl on her face to match his own frustrated mood.

"Are we f_cking moving or what?" He asked again, turning his attention back out to the Infected beginning to shuffle closer to their position.

"Yes, my people will open the other door around the back of the terminal, this one's jammed." She replied in perfect English. "We need to move that way. Please follow me."

"Right then." He replied, not surprised to see that she spoke perfect English.

"She's a smart bird, all right. " He thought. "I'm really gonna have to watch my back with her."

"If we want to survive this, we're going to have to move quickly and quietly, so don't shoot unless you have too, understood?" He told her sternly.

"Got it." She replied hesitantly.

"Right. Let's get moving, shall we?" He said as she nodded and then turned around leading the way.

It didn't take as long as he thought it would to get to the second entry point, Andrew thought to himself as they finally arrived at their destination, relieved to see that the area around the entry point was clear also.

"Go let you're mates know we're here." He said, nudging her as he covered their six.

After hearing the sound of the door rattling as it opened behind him, alarms began to go off in his head as the sound of boots on the tarmac behind him also reached his ears.

He then turned to see that he was faced with a new threat.

"F_ck me." He said under his breath as over a dozen SAT officers armed with Taser's all pointed at him, surrounded him.

Hopelessly trapped, he then looked at the female SAT officer who seemed to have a look of great regret on her face.

She had led him into a trap.

"Oh, you udder cow." He managed to mutter as several Taser's were fired and the barbs hit him all at once, sending thousands of volts coursing through his body, knocking him to the ground as his world went black.

* * *

Last Alarm-Chapter Twenty-Five: "A Child's Love."

Time: Morning Z-Day Plus 3

Location: Residential Condominium of SAT Officer Sgt. Rika Minami

* * *

The attack had been so sudden, so unexpected, that by the time Yuriko Takagi had finally managed to partially disentangle herself from underneath her friend and family guardian Yoshioka, it was all over. And now she lay helpless, her pistol knocked away when Yoshioka crashed into her and Yoshioka's rifle also nowhere within easy reach.

The few men still left remaining in the room with them trying to help their unconscious comrade, and also trying to subdue the now Infected retainer Doi, were no less as shocked as Yuriko was at the sudden attack and found themselves unable to move as well.

Not because of their shock at witnessing the sudden attack, but because they could see that the moment they made a move to reach for their weapons, their mistress was as good as dead.

As she listened to the shouts of the children and the rest of the guards yelling in fear and anger outside, Yuriko could only sit helplessly and stare wide-eyed in shock at the sight of the young girl before her dressed only in a man's tee-shirt crouched over the body of the still unconscious American.

Yuriko could not help but be shocked by the realization that the teenage girl was actually trying to **protect** the man from **them** as she held everyone at bay, brandishing a large tan-colored folding knife clutched in a reverse-grip in her right hand, in front of her.

The sight of the large knife in the girl's hand, who was supposed to have been unarmed in the first place, was surprising enough.

Evidently, Yuriko's staff had done an exceptionally poor job of searching the children, and the fact they had somehow missed such a large knife while searching this young girl as scantily clothed as she was, was inexcusable.

That mattered little now, however.

Now the situation was reversed, and Yuriko and her staff were no longer in control, with Yoshioka lying on top of her, half-conscious with a broken nose, pinning her to the floor with the weight of his body while the young girl crouched nearby within easy striking distance, ready to strike out with her blade.

And there was nothing Yuriko Takagi could do about it.

But it wasn't the knife that frightened Yuriko so much as it was the look in the young girl's eyes.

After all that had happened, it was to be expected that the child's eyes would be full of hate and anger, with tears running down her face as the girl became overcome with emotion.

Instead, the look in the young woman's eyes staring at her made Yuriko's blood freeze.

The teenager's eyes were like ice.

Expressionless, merciless, haunting, … **cold**.

The eyes of a killer.

And when she finally spoke, her voice was no less frigid than her stare.

"Takagi-sama, I realize you came only to rescue your daughter and not to intentionally harm anyone, and therefore I wish to thank you for your concern in wishing to protect the rest of us from someone whom you mistakenly think is an enemy." Saeko said in an unnervingly calm voice that seemed to chill the room.

"And I realize how things must seem to you, although I assure you, we were never in any danger from the American at any time." Saeko said as the expressionless look on her face twisted into anger. "And while I do not wish to cause your daughter who is also my friend, any pain, I promise you this…."

"If you or any of your men do anything to try to hurt Jimu-san any further." Saeko said as her eyes seemed to burn with a great intensity as Yuriko could see the knuckles of her hand growing white as she gripped the knife even harder and her small body tensed as if coiling to strike.

"**I will kill you**."

* * *

Author's Notes:

I don't know about the rest of ya'll, but I'm so proud of my "daughter." (T_T)

LOL. Just kidding.

Anyway, thank you for the kind words and reviews all of you have given to Poynton90's contribution to the story.

As soon as I post the next chapter, I intend to re-arrange the chapters so that "Andrew's Story" coincides with the morning of the second day of the Outbreak, which will be just before "Crossroads."

On another note, it was never meant for each chapter to end on a cliffhanger.

But being as I'm writing each chapter individually, it just seems that way. If I had written out the entire book first and then posted the chapters two or more at a time, it would be less noticeable than now.

The scene at bridge and the scene where Yuriko Takagi and her staff perform the raid on the condo were the only intentional cliffhangers so far. There will be a couple more in the future, but I promise, that you won't ever have to wait more than a couple of weeks for the following chapter.

I apologize for leaving you hanging on this last one, but I really needed a break and I really wanted to post Poynton90's story because Andrew and the rest of the PMC's have a huge part in the story later, and it was my fault for not entering "Andrew's Story" earlier.

Not meaning to steal attention away from poyton90's story, but because all of you have waited so patiently and have encouraged me to keep trying to make my story better with your kind reviews, I decided to end "Andrew's Story," with a sneak peek at what happens back at Rika's condo.

And being that World War "Z" starts tomorrow; I thought I'd post this chapter early so everyone could have a full weekend of zombieness.

Thanks again for your support and I'll be working on the next chapter!

Coming soon,

"A Child's Love."


	25. Chapter 24- A Child's Love Part One

Last Alarm

Chapter Twenty-Four

"A Child's Love"

Part One

* * *

"The broken soul is healed in the company of children."

Old English Proverb

* * *

Time: Morning Z-Day Plus 3

Location: Residential Condominium of SAT Officer Sgt. Rika Minami

* * *

Saeko stared horrified at the sight of Jim, her guardian, friend, mentor, and surrogate father, lying face down and unconscious on the floor, bleeding heavily from wounds cruelly inflicted by the repeated blows from a guard's rifle butt, to his head and face.

She also watched helplessly as Saya's mother Yuriko Takagi, stood nearby looking down at the unconscious man while the same man that had struck him down, also stood over him with the muzzle of his rifle pointed directly at the fallen American, as Saeko and the rest of her friends were being dragged, kicking and screaming for all they were worth, out of the room.

And despite her fierce struggling she could not take her eyes off the American lying completely still on the floor, not showing any signs of life despite the loud commotion of everyone struggling against their captors as well as everyone's extremely loud shouting.

And as she then looked directly into the man's face that was covered with blood from the wounds sustained to his face and scalp which was beginning to pool on the floor, Saeko began to re-live the moment just before the man was knocked senseless, directly in front of her.

The guards had overreacted from the American's inability to comprehend their words when they were shouting orders at him in Japanese, and losing patience, one of them had hit him in the side of the head with the butt of his rifle.

The American then reflexively lashed out at the guard, throwing an elbow strike into the guard's groin and sending him to the ground howling in pain and causing the rest of the guards to become outraged at the sudden attack on their comrade and began beating the American mercenary with the butts of their rifles.

Saeko had yelled for them to stop only to be struck herself by one of the angry guards across the face, knocking her back against a wall from the force of the blow.

The American had seen her being struck and in a blind rage had then attacked the guards throwing one of them into the rest and knocking all of them to the floor as he then tackled the man that had struck Saeko and then began to pound the guard viciously in the face with his fist.

She had seen the hate in the American's eyes when he attacked the man that had struck her and it had frightened her at seeing the normally calm and sometimes silly man so horribly enraged.

Saeko cringed at the memory of watching him beating the guard like a man possessed despite her pleas for him to stop.

* * *

And then she watched helplessly as she was grabbed and held down by one of the other guards as the American then attacked the guards once again when one of the guards hit him again with the butt of his rifle, trying to force him away from their barely conscious comrade.

The scene had turned into utter chaos as the American went wild and started swinging furniture in blind fury and injuring several other guards and even stabbing one of them in the leg with Rei's spear that was contaminated with the blood of an Infected person on it causing the wounded man to "change" as the dried blood on the end of the spear mixed with the guard's blood and infected him with the Contagion.

Finally in the midst of all the chaos, one of the men armed with a rifle hit the American in the back of the head with the butt of his weapon, stunning him. And as the guard pulled back his rifle to hit the stunned mercenary again, the American suddenly turned his head and gazed directly at Saeko.

Saeko had seen the same look before and she nearly cried as she re-lived the agony she had just experienced already the day before.

The look on his face was the same as the one he had given her just before he had plunged into the river trying to escape the Infected on the bridge yesterday.

However he hadn't jumped because he thought he could survive the fall.

He had jumped for another reason entirely.

And the look on his face now, was the same look of pain and sorrow she had seen when he had intentionally let go of the railing to prevent her and Takashi from trying to rescue him, knowing that they would have been killed in the effort if they had tried.

And also knowing the hurt he was causing her having to witness his ultimate sacrifice.

"I'm sorry," was what she read on his lips, the rush of the river too loud to actually hear the words being spoken, before he let go of the railing and fell, disappearing into the rushing water below as Saeko screamed in horror.

Now, Saeko saw the same look of pain and sadness in his eyes as she saw the guard raise his rifle in the air to strike the American once more.

And then the man's head suddenly snapped forward as the armed guard struck him again with his rifle butt splashing blood over his face as a part of his scalp tore loose from the blow of the metal buttplate of the rifle striking him and tearing away the flesh.

Saeko screamed at the sight, and also of seeing him being hit once more as he finally fell unconscious to the floor and didn't move.

* * *

"STOP!" Yuriko Takagi had roared, trying to prevent her guard from killing the American as blood began to pool on the floor from the open head wounds.

Saeko could only stare helplessly as her friend slowly bled to death from the hanging flap of scalp tissue as the guards held her down while she struggled to break fee.

And now she and her companions were being dragged away outside to awaiting vehicles parked somewhere nearby to be whisked away to whereabouts unknown, while the American who had been guardian, friend, and surrogate father to them all was to be executed once they were taken out of the room.

"The man was an unnecessary risk they could not afford to leave behind alive." Saeko had heard Yuriko Takagi say.

And now as Saeko struggled desperately to free herself from her captor who held her in a vise-like grip, the last thing she saw as she was about to be dragged out the door, was Yuriko Takagi's guard placing his rifle against his shoulder and aiming the muzzle at the American's head.

"**YAMERO!"** Saeko screamed at the top her lungs as she was roughly dragged out the door by her captor.

* * *

Once outside, Saeko struggled even harder to escape from the man's iron grip who finally in frustration at her constant struggling, then grabbed her around her waist and lifted her high in the air as she flailed her arms and legs frantically trying to break loose from his grip.

As she was bodily being carried by the large man who was following closely behind the other guards who were also having a hard time dealing with their struggling captives as well, Saeko then suddenly stopped her useless struggles and then screaming at the top of her lungs in frustration and rage, suddenly shot her elbow twice in rapid succession into the guard's face as hard as she could.

The man howled in pain as he dropped Saeko and then grabbed his heavily bleeding nose as the now freed teen then turned around and savagely brought her knee up into the man's groin as the man then made a strangled cry from the pain of the blow and then fell to the ground in a heap, gasping for air as his hands covered his groin.

Now that she was free, Saeko then reached under the large tee-shirt she was wearing as a nightgown and removed the large folding knife she had concealed underneath that was clipped to the strap of her underwear.

Saeko then stood up and yelled out to the others, who had already stopped moving along with their their captors, to watch her fighting with the much larger man and then stare in shocked surprise as they saw her break free from him.

* * *

"EVERYONE, LISTEN TO ME! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL JIMU-SAN!" Saeko shouted as everyone stared in shock at her standing on her own two feet as her captor lay writhing in pain on the ground.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" She screamed in anger, snapping them back to attention. "THEY'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!"

Everyone continued to look at her in shock, obviously still uncertain as to what to do about this new development or make any effort to free themselves.

Saeko in desperation, screamed at the top of her lungs trying to snap everyone out of their shock.

"LISTEN TO ME! JIMU-SAN GAVE US THESE TO DEFEND OURSELVES!" Saeko shouted as she raised the still closed folding knife in the air for everyone to see.

In the shock of the sudden raid and the terrible tragedy unfolding inside, the knives the American had given the women to defend themselves from attackers had been all but forgotten as everyone was being dragged away too shocked and frightened to think clearly.

Now as Saeko raised her knife in the air and yelled for them to act, Shizuka, Rei, and Saya, remembered the hidden weapons still on their person, each knife having not been discovered previously during the raid due to their captor's reluctance to thoroughly search the struggling women more thoroughly, a lapse in security that Saeko had used to her advantage.

"NOW, FIGHT BACK!" She yelled, her eyes blazing in fury. "FIGHT BACK, OR HE'S DEAD!"

Saeko then turned on her heel and ran back towards the shattered door of the condo as once again the sounds of her friends struggling with their captors filled the air behind her, along with the screams of fear and yelps of pain from the guards as she ran for the door.

* * *

Yuriko Takagi waited until all of the children and the nurse had been forcefully taken out of the room before she turned to her most trusted retainer Yoshioka, and nodded her head for him to carry out his grisly task.

Yoshioka nodded as he then aimed his rifle at the man's head and was about to squeeze the trigger, sending the bullet that would end the American's life, when Yoshioka was surprised to see Yuriko raise her hand up again suddenly, stopping him from taking the shot.

"Yoshioka-san, matte." Yuriko Takagi said, as she looked over at the few men left in the room with them that were trying to help one of the guards that had been knocked unconscious by the American, while others were still trying to subdue the now Infected man Doi, who was struggling mightily against them, snapping his jaws and trying to break free from the plastic cuffs binding his hands and legs.

"Doshita, Takagi-sama?" Yoshioka said as he looked up from the sights of his rifle and stared at her, curious as to why his mistress had suddenly prevented him from pulling the trigger.

"Let's wait until the men take Doi-san outside, first." Yuriko said frowning as the men struggled even more desperately with the Infected man.

"In his condition now, the sound of the shot will only aggravate him more and make moving him all the more difficult for them." Yuriko sighed. "And I'm not leaving him here. He deserves better than that."

"Wakatta." Yoshioka relied, lowering his rifle as the struggling guards finally managed to duct-tape the snapping man's jaws closed and then began duct-taping his arms and legs attempting to restrict his violent movements even more.

* * *

"What a mess this turned out to be." Yuriko said with a deep sigh, as the guards then managed to catch their breath for a moment and then attempted to drag the still struggling Infected man towards the doorway leading out to the street, as the other guards in the room waited for them to leave so they could carry out their unconscious comrade in relative safety.

"Doi-san was a good man." Yoshioka said quietly.

"Hai, and more importantly, he was a great friend Yoshioka-kun." Yuriko added sadly.

"Hai, Takagi-sama." Yoshioka replied.

"That he was." He said as he gazed upon the troubled face of the female head of the Takagi household.

Yoshioka could plainly see how saddened Yuriko was at the loss of the family's long-time servant and closest friend who had been one of the first to volunteer for this dangerous mission to rescue the child of the Takagi household.

Now their friend was gone, and Yuriko was blaming herself for his death, even though what happened was not something anyone could have foreseen.

The mission itself had been a risky one, the rescue plan hastily made with the intelligence they had received from General Ihara, who had taken a great personal risk himself at "appropriating" for them the intelligence of where the teens and the American "terrorist" had taken refuge, as well as all the information they needed to carry out the raid, not to mention the ultra-secret travel route in the service tunnels running underneath the river as well as providing the weapons and ammunition they had armed themselves with.

It had been a great risk for the General, but Saya's uncle had no intention of standing by and doing nothing while his niece wandered all alone with a few of her schoolmates, helpless in a city full of dangerous men and bloodthirsty monsters while in the company of a suspected "terrorist".

And despite all the help from the General that they had received, the risks were still very high, especially since most of the "guards" on this rescue weren't really guards at all and had no experience with weapons either.

And even then, there was just no guarantee that there wouldn't be any casualties no matter how prepared or how careful they were.

And now despite their best efforts, they had indeed sustained heavy casualties.

"But now was not the time to grieve." Yoshioka thought as the threat of an entire city full of Infected heading their way loomed ever nearer.

* * *

"It was also his choice to come with us to rescue Saya-sama as well, Yuriko-san." Yoshioka said quietly, looking directly at her. "You must not blame yourself for what happened."

"You've always been a great friend Yoshioka-kun." Yuriko replied looking up at him with a weak smile. "And I thank you for your kind words. But perhaps we should have looked for another way to rescue Saya-chan."

"Perhaps." Yoshioka replied staring at the two casualties being taken away.

"But the most important thing is that Saya-sama is safe. That's all that matters now, my lady." Yoshioka said as he then glared at the American lying at his feet.

"And now that the Infected are heading our way, we need to focus on our escape now, and grieve for our friend later." He said shifting the weight of the rifle in his arms.

"Hai." Yuriko replied quietly, the loss of such a close friend of the family still weighing heavily on her.

The sound of a woman's scream piercing the air outside snapped everyone's attention from the tragedy inside the room as they then turned their heads towards the door behind them.

The sound of the scream that everyone heard was quite different from the shouts coming from the rest of the young people screaming and yelling in protest as they struggled against Yuriko's guards.

In fact, the scream was not the sound brought about from someone reacting out of pain or fear at all.

It was the sound of a scream uttered from intense hate, anger, fury,…..**rage.**

And what startled Yuriko and the rest of her guards even further were the sound of a man's scream of pain that followed directly afterwards, followed by a woman's angry shouts and then more yelps of pain and surprise coming from the rest of the guards outside.

* * *

"Yoshioka-kun!" Yuriko shouted, fearing the worst, as she drew her pistol and pointed towards the door.

"Hai!" Yoshioka replied as he stepped away from the unconscious American and moved hastily towards the open doorway, raising the muzzle of his rifle up as he approached the door.

"YOU MEN, GET TO THE VEHICLES NOW!" Yuriko shouted over her shoulder as she followed closely behind Yoshioka as he was about to rush through the door.

Yoshioka then stopped abruptly as he was about to pass through the open doorway, causing Yuriko to accidentally bump into him as a shadow suddenly appeared at the door, blocking their path.

Yuriko was stunned at first after she had accidentally bumped into the guard's back wondering what it was that had caused him to stop so suddenly.

And then confusion switched to alarm as Yoshioka then dropped his rifle.

* * *

And as she heard the sound of the weapon clattering to the floor, she then heard him gasp as if he had been struck and then she saw his hands rise up, seemingly to be clutching at his throat as if he were unable to breathe.

And then to Yuriko's further shock, Yoshioka's head then snapped back and he fell hard against her as if struck by a powerful force, knocking her down to the floor as well by the impact of his body colliding into her.

The force of the collision knocked her pistol out of her hand, and then Yuriko gasped as the larger man then fell on top of her, leaving her lying helpless and gasping for breath, the wind knocked out of her by the weight of his body.

Yuriko, seeing the predicament she was now in and sensing danger, then reached desperately for her pistol lying on the floor next to her almost reaching it and then cursing in frustration as it was suddenly knocked away from her reach and sent skittering across the floor.

Struggling even more desperately now to free herself from underneath the semi-conscious man, Yuriko roughly managed to push his body partially off of her and somewhat free herself as she sat up and then gasped in shock at the sight before her.

As Saeko ran around the corner of the building and then finally reached the open door hoping that she was not already too late, the armed guard that had been pointing his rifle at the unconscious American suddenly appeared in the doorway.

The man hesitated a moment on catching sight of the young girl standing before him, his eyes widening at the sight of seeing her standing there and no longer captive, as Saeko reacted instantly, taking advantage of his hesitation by slamming her left hand on his rifle knocking it to the side, and then using the closed folding knife in her right hand as a _kubotan_, forcefully slamming the end of the knife handle into the man's windpipe, causing him to instinctively drop his rifle and grasp for his throat, struggling to breathe.

Saeko then slammed the end of the knife into his nose with a crunch, snapping his head back and knocking him off balance.

Saeko then lowered her body and slammed her shoulder into the man's abdomen with the full weight of her body, knocking him backwards into Yuriko, who then yelled in surprise dropping her pistol,as she fell to the floor, with the man then toppling down on top of her and knocking the wind out of her.

The woman's pistol clattered to the floor and Saeko watched Yuriko desperately reach for it and then almost succeeded in placing her hand on it as Saeko then quickly dove to the ground and slapped it out away from Yuriko's grasp as she then rolled towards the wounded American.

As she got back on her feet, Saeko then crouched low, flipping the blade of the folding knife out as she then held it out in front of her in a reverse grip.

Saeko glanced at the people in the room and then seeing no one reaching for their weapons, too stunned at the sight of her to move, she then crouched low over the fallen American as she then focused her attention on Yuriko, who gasped at the sight of the young teenage girl who had so soundly beaten them.

* * *

The attack had been so sudden, so unexpected, that by the time Yuriko Takagi had finally managed to partially disentangle herself from underneath her friend and family guardian Yoshioka, it was all over.

Now she lay helpless, her pistol knocked away and Yoshioka's rifle also nowhere within easy reach.

The few men still left remaining in the room with them that had been trying to help their unconscious comrade and also trying to subdue and carry away the now Infected retainer Doi, were no less as shocked as Yuriko was at the sudden attack, and for the moment, found themselves unable to move as well.

It was not only because of the shock of the sudden attack that they found themselves unable to move.

But it was because that they could also see that the moment they made **any** move to reach for their weapons, their mistress was as good as dead.

Yuriko was stunned at how quickly the tide had turned because of the actions of this small girl crouched before her, and as she listened to the shouts of the children and the rest of the guards yelling in fear and anger outside, Yuriko could only sit helplessly and stare wide-eyed in shock at the sight of the young girl before her dressed only in a man's tee-shirt crouched over the body of the still unconscious American.

Yuriko could not help but be shocked by the realization that the teenage girl was actually trying to **protect** the American from **them **as she held everyone at bay, brandishing a rather large, tan-colored folding knife clutched in a reverse-grip in her right hand.

The sight of the large knife in the girl's hand, who was supposed to have been unarmed in the first place, was surprising enough.

Evidently, Yuriko's staff had done an exceptionally poor job of searching the children, and the fact they had somehow missed such a large knife while searching this young girl as scantily clothed as she was, was inexcusable.

That mattered little now, however.

* * *

Now the situation was reversed, and Yuriko and her staff were no longer in control, with Yoshioka lying on top of her, half-conscious with a broken nose, pinning her to the floor with the weight of his body while the young girl crouched nearby within easy striking distance, ready to strike out with her blade.

And there was nothing Yuriko Takagi could do about it.

But it wasn't the knife that frightened Yuriko so much as it was the look in the young girl's eyes.

After all that had happened, it was to be expected that the child's eyes would be full of anger and hate, with tears running down her face as the girl became overcome with emotion.

Instead, the look in the young woman's eyes staring at her made Yuriko's blood turn cold.

The teenager's eyes were like ice.

Expressionless, emotionless, haunting, … cold.

The eyes of a killer.

* * *

And when she finally spoke, her voice was no less frigid than her stare.

"Takagi-sama, I realize you came only to rescue your daughter and not to intentionally harm anyone, and therefore I wish to thank you for your concern in wishing to protect the rest of us from someone whom you mistakenly think is an enemy." Saeko said in an unnervingly calm voice that seemed to chill the room.

"And I realize how things must seem to you, although I assure you, we were never in any danger from the American at any time." Saeko said as the expressionless look on her face slowly twisted into anger.

"And while I do not wish to cause your daughter who is also my friend, any pain, I promise you this…."

"If you or any of your men do anything to try to hurt Jimu-san any further." Saeko said as her eyes seemed to burn with a great intensity as Yuriko could see the knuckles of her hand growing white as she gripped the knife even harder and her small body tensed as if coiling to strike.

"I will kill you."

* * *

Yuriko stared awestruck at the sight of the young girl in front of her poised to strike. The viciousness of the attack and the boldness that the young girl displayed in fending off her and her men left Yuriko speechless for a few moments as she stared into the steely eyes of the young teen.

Her trance was then broken at the sound of one of her men yelling her name as he stumbled through the door and then suddenly halted as his eyes focused in on the tense stand-off in the room.

"Takagi-sama!" The man with the now bloody nose and sore groin who had held Saeko captive earlier yelled as he gazed upon the deadly predicament his mistress was in, hesitating for a moment, the words he wished to say momentarily forgotten at the sight of the young girl having gained the upper hand.

"Takagi-sama!" He repeated as he found his words again.

"I'm sorry Lady Takagi. She caught me off guard!" He said, glaring at Saeko who ignored him and kept her eyes squarely on Yuriko's face, ready to strike the instant anyone made a wrong move.

"You're not the only one that was caught off guard Kukugari-san ." Yuriko said with a smirk as she stared back at the teenage knife-fighter as Yoshioka moaned in pain.

"Hai." The guard Kukugari replied. "I'm sorry Takagi-sama, but we have a problem outside as well."

Yuriko rolled her eyes and sighed at the man's words.

"Now what?" Yuriko thought to herself as she stared at the girl's face and shuddered involuntarily at the teen's eyes that seemed to be boring into her.

"Please handle it for me, Kukugari-san." Yuriko replied, her voice beginning to betray her frustration. "I'm a little busy at the moment."

"I understand my lady, however." The guard stammered. "It concerns Saya-sama."

"Is she all right?" Yuriko asked worriedly, fearing her daughter had been injured, and wondering if it had anything to do with all the yelling she had heard earlier.

"Yes and no, my lady." The guard said reddening. "It's best you come out and see for yourself."

Yuriko rolled her eyes once more and cursed under her breath in frustration at her predicament.

* * *

Here she was currently caught in a life or death stand-off with a knife-wielding teen who had knocked her and the much larger man Yoshioka-san, ass-over-tea kettle to the floor with barely any effort, and was now preventing her and her men from doing anything to get out of their tense situation.

Meanwhile, unknown multitudes of Infected were now converging on their location and would be soon cutting off their escape at any moment now.

And as if that weren't bad enough, now her guards were asking her to come outside and handle some new disaster concerning her daughter that they were too **embarrassed** to talk about?

Yuriko wanted to scream some very unlady-like oaths at her predicament but restrained herself from losing her temper and gazed at the young barely-dressed girl in front of her.

The tension was extremely thick in the air as everyone in the room stared at the young girl wielding the large folding knife crouching over the unconscious American.

Even the now Infected retainer Doi was no longer moving as much anymore, although it had more to do with how tightly he had been bound than anything else.

"What is your name, child?" Yuriko asked with a heavy sigh as her face fell in frustration.

"Busujima, Saeko. Age eighteen." Saeko replied, still staring icily into Yuriko's eyes.

Yuriko's face perked up in surprise at Saeko's answer and Saeko could see Yuriko's eyes studying her even more closely as she continued speaking.

"Busujima?" Yuriko said, her voice betraying her surprise. "Are you Busujima, Hiroyuki's daughter?"

"Hai." Saeko replied, not wavering. "He is my father."

"My husband was one of his students." Yuriko replied genuinely surprised. "How is your father?"

"I do not know." Saeko replied, still being alert for a possible surprise attack from one of the guards. "He was at one of our dojos overseas. I have not heard from him since before the Outbreak."

"I see." Yuriko replied as Yoshioka began to stir and then blinked his eyes as he regained consciousness.

Yuriko then quickly grabbed ahold of the man that had been lying across her legs all this time as she tried to prevent him from making any sudden moves as he suddenly became aware of the tense situation they were all in.

* * *

"Takagi-dono!" He yelled in surprise and anger as rolled to the side and glared at Saeko, his nose bleeding heavily.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, GIRL?!" Yoshioka roared as Saeko's eyes narrowed and she shifted her weight in preparation for an attack from the angry man.

"STOP IT! ALL OF YOU!" Yuriko yelled in command as everyone else in the room suddenly tensed as if to rush the young girl.

"I'm handling this, so every one of you stand down!" Yuriko commanded as Yoshioka slowly removed himself from off her legs and then sat up, still glaring at Saeko.

"Busujima-san." Yuriko continued, speaking calmly so as not to aggravate the situation any further.

"Is it all right if I send my men outside to take away our wounded and check on my daughter and the others?"

"Takagi-sama!" All the men in the room said at once causing the Infected retainer Doi to start struggling even more aggressively from all of the shouting voices.

"ALL OF YOU BE QUIET!" Yuriko yelled as she continued to focus her gaze on Saeko.

"Busujima-san." Yuriko said in a pleasant tone. "You have my word that we won't try to harm you or any of your friends. I promise you."

"But I beg of you please." Yuriko said bowing her head. "Please allow my men to see that my daughter is safe and to move our wounded out of here."

"And I will stay with you as your hostage in the meantime." Yuriko said, looking up.

* * *

"Takagi-sama, …NO!" Yoshioka replied in shock. "We won't leave you this way!"

"We came here for Saya-chan, Yoshioka-kun!" Yuriko replied firmly. "And all of this will be for **nothing** if she's hurt."

"Now do as I say." Yuriko commanded sternly.

"Hai, Takagi-dono." Yoshioka said resignedly.

"Do we have your permission, Busujima-san?" Yuriko said turning to face Saeko again.

"Dozo." Saeko replied still wary of an attack.

While Saeko could see that the female head of the Takagi Household was sincere and more than likely true to her word. Saeko had seen the murderous look in the eyes of the Takagi guards directed towards her and the American.

And despite Yuriko's command, Saeko was still very untrusting of the guards, whom she believed would make an attempt on her and the American's life the moment an opportunity presented itself, no matter how sincere Yuriko Takagi was at promising that they wouldn't be harmed.

Yuriko nodded to her men as three of her guards carried off their still unconscious comrade while the remaining men carried off the still struggling Infected man Doi.

* * *

As they all left the room, the two remaining guards Yoshioka and Kukugari, continued to glare angrily at Saeko as she fearlessly glared back at them, completely non-plussed at their obvious rage at her.

"Gentlemen, hurry and see to my daughter, if you please." Yuriko said trying with all her will to keep her voice even and trying with much difficulty not to display any of the mounting panic she felt growing within her at the thought of Saya possibly lying hurt outside.

"Hai, Takagi-sama." The two men replied as they grudgingly turned around and headed towards the door.

"Yoshioka-san." Saeko said calmly as the man stopped and then turned around to face her.

"Do not try to retrieve your rifle or attempt any tricks of any kind whatsoever." Saeko said, her voice dropping the air temperature around them a few degrees as she spoke.

"Because it will go badly for Takagi-san if you try." Saeko said still staring at Yuriko, as she then turned her head and met Yoshioka's eye with the same icy-glare.

"**And then I will kill, you."** Saeko said not blinking an eye.

* * *

Yoshioka glared at Saeko with mounting fury and took a step forward towards the young girl, and then stopped and forcefully calmed himself as he met Yuriko's eye as she glanced over at him.

"It'll be all right, Yoshioka-san. Don't worry." Yuriko said smiling, as he then nodded his head and turned around and headed out the door without saying a word.

Yuriko sighed as she then looked back at Saeko who continued to watch her with that same icy stare.

"You are very brave, Busujima-san." Yuriko said looking at her.

Saeko only stared back and said nothing.

"Do you mind if I call you Saeko?" Yuriko asked pleasantly,trying to calm the girl and ease the tension in the room.

Saeko nodded her head but said nothing as she kept alert for any sounds of betrayal, listening for the tell-tale sound of a boot on glass trying to sneak back through the door, or the sound of a gun's safety being flicked off, or anything that would indicate that the men outside were trying to rush in and overpower her.

Although in truth, all any of the guards had to do was threaten the lives of her friends outside, and Saeko would have no choice but to surrender.

"Do not worry, Saeko-chan." Yuriko said, as if reading her mind. "My men will not hurt the rest of your friends either."

Yuriko then moved away from the wall she had been pressed against and knelt closer to Saeko, placing herself now in even closer striking range than before and in even greater danger.

* * *

It was a move that would have given her guards, Saya, and her husband a heart attack, but Yuriko had her reasons for placing herself in so dangerous a position.

And the main reason for Yuriko's questionable action of placing herself even closer to the knife-wielding teen, was to offer a clearly visible gesture of trust to the young woman crouched protectively over the wounded man.

"Now that the men are gone, we can finally talk woman-to-woman, at last. " Yuriko said as she settled herself within arm's reach of the silent girl.

"Neh, Saeko-chan?" Yuriko said smiling slightly, trying not to appear threatening in any way.

Saeko merely continued to closely watch Yuriko and said nothing.

"He means a lot to you, I presume?" Yuriko asked Saeko as she nodded towards the unconscious man.

"He has been our protector the last three days, Takagi-sama." Saeko replied, her voice not nearly as cold and unfeeling as earlier. Yuriko's attempt at trying to earn the girl's trust seeming to be working slightly, although the situation was obviously, still very tense.

"And he is also our friend." She added.

"Much more than a friend, I think." Yuriko replied, studying Saeko's face closely for any reaction.

"I beg your pardon?" Saeko asked, slightly confused.

"What I mean is, Saeko-chan," Yuriko continued, speaking casually. "That for you to be putting your life at risk like this for this man whom you've only known for three days, it tells me that he is much more to you than just a friend."

"He's treated us as if we were his own children." Saeko replied calmly. "Including **your** own daughter as well."

"I see." Yuriko replied as she glanced toward the open door beginning to get anxious as to what was happening outside.

"Be that as it may, he is still a wanted man by the Japanese Government, Saeko-chan." Yuriko said frankly.

"Your point being?" Saeko asked.

Yuriko was taken aback a little by Saeko's seemingly nonchalant reply, but continued to try to reason with her, hoping to convince her to give up on the still very tense stand-off over the American.

"My point being is that in the eyes of the Japanese Government, he is a wanted criminal." Yuriko continued.

"So I have to ask you Saeko-chan, do you **really** wish to lose your life here over a man that is probably already near death anyway?" Yuriko asked looking for a hint of uncertainty in the girl's eyes and finding none.

"And even if he does survive." Yuriko continued.

"He may still very well be put to death for crimes against the State. Is that worth you dying here today, for **him**?" Yuriko said starting to grow a little frustrated at the girl's seeming unwillingness to listen to reason.

Saeko in turn, didn't even blink an eye at Yuriko's words.

And when she did speak, her own words were as strong as her conviction.

"Takagi-dono, say what you will. But I will not abandon him, nor will I allow you or any of your men to harm him." Saeko replied, as unnervingly calm as she had before.

"And if any of you make any attempts to kill him or try to take me away from him, before I fall, I promise you, you will most certainly fall with me." Saeko said icily.

* * *

Yuriko reacted with surprise at the young girl's answer and then closed her eyes and shook her head in exasperation.

"This child is more aggravatingly stubborn than Saya-chan." Yuriko thought, as she tried hard not to scream in anger at the young girl who was really frustrating her every effort to try to reason with her and prevent her from getting killed, just because the child felt some sort of perverse loyalty to a dangerous criminal who had somehow duped all of the children into thinking he was their friend.

"Saeko-chan, you do realize that there is a large number of Infected headed this way?" Yuriko asked trying a different tact as she closely studied the teens face, looking for any chink in her armor.

"Hai." Saeko replied.

"And if we stay here much longer, we will not be able to escape and will all die here. Do you understand that, as well?" Yuriko asked, not taking her eyes off the young girl.

"Hai." Saeko replied calmly, much to Yuriko frustration.

Yuriko tried hard to resist the urge to slap the young girl across the face at her brazenness, but miraculously kept her cool as she continued to try to reason with the girl.

"Your friend here may have been involved in an incident at the airport two days ago and I personally watched a video of him killing some people yesterday. Are you aware of that?" Yuriko asked, her annoyance at Saeko beginning to show.

"Hai." Saeko replied calmly, surprising Yuriko greatly with her answer.

"Hai?!" Yuriko replied in horror. "YOU KNEW?!"

"Hai." Saeko said unwavering. "He explained to us that he is a mercenary. And he also told us that he and his friends were attacked at the airport as well, and as far as killing those men last night, he also explained that to us as well for the most part."

"**When** did he tell you this?" Yuriko asked frowning.

"He explained that he was a "Military Contractor" yesterday." Saeko answered. "And as far as the attack on the men you claim that you saw, he told us about that last night, immediately after it happened."

"And as far as **why** he killed those men, Takagi-sama." Saeko continued. "He did it to protect us."

"I'm sure that's what he told you Saeko-chan,…" Yuriko began.

"And it's also not the first time he had to do so." Saeko continued, interrupting her.

"He has also had to kill four members of a street gang who attacked us and tried to rape Marikawa-sensei and your daughter, Takagi-sama." Saeko said gently, seeing the visibly horrified expression appearing on Yuriko's face and realizing what a shock her words must have been to Saya's mother.

* * *

"WHAT?!" Yuriko said horrified as she stared at the unconscious man.

"I'm afraid it's true." Saeko replied calmly. "If not for Jimu-san, I shudder to think what may have happened to your daughter as well as the rest of us if he had not intervened."

"My Saya-chan was nearly raped?!" Yuriko thought to herself in shock, the horror of one of the most brutal acts that has ever been committed against a woman having nearly occurring to her own daughter, while she and her husband were completely unaware of what had nearly befallen their child as they busied themselves with trying to restore order amidst the chaos of the Outbreak.

Yuriko cursed herself that while she and her husband were so busy trying to establish command and control of the situation, and disperse personnel to obtain supplies, , power, food, and water for their servants and their families as well as the crowd of refugees seeking shelter on their property, their own daughter had nearly been victimized by a crazed bunch of thugs.

And the only reason that hadn't happened was because of the actions of this man lying unconscious and bleeding to death in front of her that only moments before, she had given the order to end his life.

"TAKAGI-SAMA!" Yoshioka yelled, snapping her out of her thoughts as he suddenly reappeared at the door, causing Yuriko to flinch at his loud shout. "Please come quick! It's your daughter!"

Yuriko instantly got up to one knee and prepared to dash out of the room, but then stopped herself to look back at Saeko who then smiled and nodded her head for Yuriko to leave.

"Thank you!" Yuriko said gratefully, as she got to her feet.

"Takagi-sama." Saeko said gently just as Yuriko was about to dash towards the door.

Yuriko turned her head, and was surprised to see Saeko smiling calmly as she lowered the knife and then knelt down next to the unconscious man.

Yuriko was shocked at the sudden change in the girl's demeanor from just a moment before. No longer were her eyes as cold and frightening as they were before.

Instead, the expression on the young girl's face was serene, and when she spoke, her voice was calm, even gentle, towards her.

"Takagi-sama, please take your daughter and the rest of my friends away from here while you still can." Saeko began. "And if they ask you what happened to me, please tell them I decided to stay with Jimu-san."

* * *

Yuriko Takagi was thunderstruck at Saeko's words and was aghast at what the teenager was saying.

"You're not serious!" Yuriko replied, horrified by the young girl's decision to stay behind even though it was obvious that neither she nor the unconscious man would survive once the Infected overwhelmed this area.

"Saeko-chan, that would be suicide! Why would you want to do this, child?!" Yuriko said baffled by the young girl's decision to remain behind.

"You stated earlier that this man must mean something more to me than just being a "friend" Takagi-san." Saeko replied smiling slightly as she then looked down at the still form of the man. "And you were correct in your assumption."

"What do you mean?" Yuriko asked still dumbfounded by Saeko's decision to stay.

"This man took it upon himself despite the increased danger to his life, to be our guardian." Saeko began.

"But even more than that, he has treated all of us like his own children, even though I have found it more than a little annoying when he tries to scold me as if I'm still a child." Saeko said laughing a little.

"And despite the dangers we have faced he still refuses to abandon us even though staying with us has put his life in danger time and time again, and nearly cost him his life already trying to protect us." Saeko continued.

"And I truly believe that the reason he does so, is because somewhere in his heart, he really **is** protecting his own children, because he really **does** love all of us."

"And we have all come to love him as well, Takagi-san." Saeko said as she placed her hand on the unconscious man's shoulder and gazed sadly at his still form.

"And since this man refused to abandon the "children" he has come to love so much." Saeko continued.

"Then I refuse to abandon the "father" that I have come to love as well." Saeko said as she gazed back at Yuriko.

* * *

Yuriko was aghast at the young woman's reply and found herself momentarily speechless. And then once she found her voice, she could only shake her head.

"Saeko-chan, this is crazy! You're only going to get yourself killed!" Yuriko managed to say, all efforts to try to reason with the teenager now abandoned as Yuriko realized reason no longer applied here.

"You have a real father!" Yuriko continued, nearly shouting. "What about him? What would he think about you dying over this man?"

"I love my father very much." Saeko replied softly. "And even though I'm not sure whether he's still alive or not, I do believe he would understand my decision to stay."

"Forgive me for saying this Takagi-sama." Saeko said smiling somewhat sadly at the shocked expression on Yuriko's face. "But I do not expect you to understand."

Yuriko stood speechless now as she stared at the young girl in disbelief, until Yoshioka walked over next to her and began to speak.

"Takagi-dono." Yoshioka began. "The child has made her decision. There is nothing more we can do here to change her mind."

"Demo." Yuriko began to protest.

"Yuriko-san." Yoshioka said, speaking more firmly. "You have done all you can, and now you have your own child to attend to right now."

Yuriko hesitated a moment at Yoshioka's words as she stared sadly at the young girl kneeling all alone next to the unconscious American.

Misguided loyalty or not, the young girl was determined to stay with the rogue American mercenary even if it meant her doom. And despite her best efforts, Yuriko finally realized that there was nothing more she could do to change the teenager's mind.

It was a tragedy that Yuriko could not prevent from happening, and with the possibility of Saya and all of their own lives in danger from the approaching Infected, there was no more time to waste trying to save this young teen from her own misguided affection for the American mercenary.

It was just too late.

"I'm sorry Saeko-chan." Yuriko said as she finally resigned the girl to whatever fate would befall her and then turned around and ran out the door behind Yoshioka.

"Yoshioka is right; there was nothing more I could do." Yuriko thought as she ran out the door and tried to forget the mental picture of the beautiful young woman all alone in the wrecked apartment resigning herself to death over a stranger she had come to look upon as a "father" figure.

Despite her sadness at the poor girl's tragic end, Yuriko pushed aside her thoughts of the young teen and ran closely behind Yoshioka around the side of the building and down the driveway, headed directly towards the gates leading out into the street.

* * *

As Saeko watched the two adults bound out of the room and out the door, she waited a few moments more, keeping alert for signs that any of the guards of the Takagi Household were going to come rushing in as soon as their mistress was no longer in danger.

And after waiting a few moments more and with no one making any attempts to charge in, Saeko released the two safety catches of the CRKT M-21 knife and folded the large knife closed.

Saeko then stared at the unconscious man at her side as she reached down and shook him slightly, trying not to look at the horrible sight of the man's partially exposed skull underneath the small flap of his scalp lying to the side.

"Jimu-san?" She said calmly, with no response coming from the wounded man.

"Jimu-san!" Saeko repeated a little more loudly as she shook the man harder and still gained no response at all from the man.

Saeko then reached over and gingerly placed her fingers on the man's throat, feeling for a pulse and after a few tense moments breathed a sigh of relief, relieved to have found one, albeit very weak.

She then leaned over and placed her ear on the man's back and listened to him breathe, finding his respirations to be very slow and shallow.

Saeko then looked at the unconscious man for a moment and then placed her hands on his back and shook him vigorously.

"Jimu-san, please wake up, we have to go!" Saeko said desperately as she tried once more to shake the man awake again.

The American continued to lay unconscious and unresponsive despite her efforts, as the tears that Saeko had been holding back, began to fall down her face.

"Jimu-san, please wake up." Saeko said as she lay her head on the man's shoulder and squeezed him hard.

"Please Jimu-san. **"They're"** coming." She said as a sob escaped her lips.

* * *

As the young girl lay with her head against the unconscious man's shoulder and held him tightly, there was no sound at all in the condominium that had just a few minutes earlier been had filled with the sounds of laughter and happy shouts from the teens enjoying the pleasure of each other's company and the happy prospect of returning to their families that day.

Gone were the sounds of Shizuka happily cooking breakfast for everyone as they ate and talked about their adventures of the past two days.

Gone were the sounds of everyone's laughter at seeing the American drag himself to the table looking like a grouchy bear that had been awakened from its den.

Gone were the happy sounds of Alice squealing with delight as she played with the stray puppy they had found when they had rescued her.

Gone was the sound of everyone laughing as Saya scolded Kouta for telling her to shut up last night.

All sounds of happiness and joy that had once filled the condo that morning were now gone.

And the once spacious and luxurious condo seemed to be all the more cavernous, dark, and uninviting, serving as a stark reminder to Saeko of just how very alone she felt right now.

Now in the once luxurious condo filled with the sounds of bustling activity, happy voices and laughter, there were no voices or sounds at all, and the once tidy interior was now in a shambles with the remains of broken furniture all around and splashes of blood everywhere staining the once expensive plush carpet.

The once happy teens and their nurse were now gone, all of them taken away by the guards of the Takagi House, each of them dragged away kicking and screaming in fear.

Now only Saeko and the unconscious American mercenary remained.

And they wouldn't survive much longer, either.

Saeko knelt helplessly at the man's side, unsure of what to do next, knowing that soon death would soon be on their doorstep as the Infected pushed through the area and spilled over the gates surrounding the complex.

Saeko felt more alone now than she had ever felt in her life.

With all her friends gone and no help to be expected from any of the Takagi Household and only the clothes she was now wearing and no weapon other than the knife in her hand. Saeko was quickly beginning to be overcome with a feeling of hopelessness that she had never experienced before.

All her years of training, both physical and mental to prepare herself to defeat all enemies before her in Kendo and to help her conquer her own fears in life seemed to fade away as she looked upon the empty room and then upon the still figure on the floor with the massive head wounds bleeding steadily on the floor.

Saeko wanted to go find a towel to stem the bleeding, but feared leaving the American alone.

No, not because she feared the American being left alone, she thought.

But because **she** now feared being alone.

The room was as silent as a tomb for a few moments, with only the sound of a gentle breeze heard flowing through the broken windows and doors of the condo adding to the lonely atmosphere.

And then the silence was finally broken by the sound of the young girl's gentle sobbing as the emotion she had kept hidden away from her enemies finally released itself in a flood.

"Jimu-san,** please** wake up!" Saeko said quietly as tears fell down her face.

"**Please**, I'm afraid, and I don't know what to do!" Saeko said as she began to cry uncontrollably.

* * *

"IS SHE ALL RIGHT, YOSHIOKA-SAN?!" Yuriko yelled in near panic as they hurriedly turned the corner and then ran down the driveway headed for the open gate.

"Hai, Yuriko-san." Yoshioka replied as he pointed to the group standing out in the middle of the street as they ran through the gate and then slowed to a walk as they went past the gate as Yuriko stared in disbelief at the group of people gathered ahead of them.

"Demo,….." Yoshioka said, his voice trailing off as he placed his hand on the back of his head and rubbed his head in embarrassment.

Yuriko Takagi took a few more tentative steps forward in disbelief at what she was seeing, and then stopped walking completely as she stood staring in shock at the sight of the strange, and totally unexpected spectacle in front of her.

The guards that had carried off their unconscious comrade, and the Infected man Doi were standing near the black cargo vans that Yuriko and her men had parked out in the street, all of them looking as dumbfounded as Yuriko did at the sight of the extremely unforeseen drama that had arisen unexpectedly right in front of their eyes.

Yuriko stared in shock at the sight of all the guards that had dragged off the teens and their nurse earlier that were now standing **away** from the small group of refugees, all of them nursing small bleeding wounds on their arms or legs, as their "captives" stood their ground facing them in a circle.

And the ones who were doing all the defending of the small group of former "captives" were the two teenage girls and the school nurse, all of them holding the same type of large tan-colored folding knives in both of their hands, brandishing them as if they were katanas.

Each of the women were fending off the guards with their large knives while the two unarmed boys and the little girl and her puppy remained protected within the circle.

And what surprised Yuriko Takagi even more was the sight of her own daughter Saya, standing there holding a knife two-handed like a sword and slashing away at the guards, as she then turned her head and glared angrily at her mother upon catching sight of her standing in the street.

Upon noticing her mother standing there and watching them in awe, Saya then spoke to Yuriko in a loud commanding voice so filled with anger and contempt, that the sound of her own daughter's voice speaking to her in such a harsh fashion shocked Yuriko even more than what Saya said.

"**OKASAN!"** Saya roared as she waved her knife at the nearest guard, her voice as angry as the scowl on her face.

"WE… ARE… NOT… LEAVING!"

* * *

UPDATE: 6-30-2013

I was trying to reorganize and edit the chapters in my story and ended up making a terrific mess instead.

So if anyone was confused by some sudden changes and some chapters posted that weren't supposed to be, that was my bad.

Just to clear up some of the confusion, I re-did the organization of the chapters a bit.

"Foreword" is now actually "Foreword", and not "Chapter One" like it was before.

"The Bridge" is now Chapter One the way it was supposed to have been, and the last chapter is now Chapter 24 instead of Chapter 25.

Sorry for the confusion.

I added some new dialogue in some of the chapters, especially "The Man from the Alamo City", and as time goes on, I'll be tweaking the story here and there so it makes the story go smoother.

Up till now, "Last Alarm" has basically been a "rough draft".

Now I hope to tweak it one chapter at a time and fix all the errors I made and add some stuff that I think will improve the story.

Again, sorry for the confusion.

And thanks again for your patience and support!

Jim

* * *

Author's Notes,

You,….Shall,….Not,….**PASS!**

LOL. Yeah, I'm an LOTR fan too, which is partially the reason I had Saya make such a dramatic stand against her mother.

Bet you didn't see that coming either.

Hope all of you had a great weekend.

And for those of you who went to the movies this weekend, hope you enjoyed World War Z like I did, although I think it would have been better if it had been another hour longer so, in my honest opinion.

Good movie, but it felt a little rushed, I think.

Anyway, after writing that little preview of this chapter last week, I was really inspired to finish writing the rest of it over the weekend.

I hope you're not disappointed with the end result.

I tried not to make it too emotional, but even the most stout person would find it hard to deal with such a grim situation and not want to break down like Saeko does in this chapter.

Fortunately, she is not as alone as she thinks she is, which will make for an interesting story next chapter.

And no, again, I'm not trying to leave the story on a cliffhanger.

But Saya making a dramatic stand against her mother was a great way to end this particular chapter I thought.

On another note, I had received a few suggestions as to what should happen to Jim after leaving him lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor, and I wish to thank everyone who offered a suggestion.

And I was also greatly encouraged by the reviews I got about Saeko's coming to Jim's rescue in the preview I wrote in the last chapter. It helped me a lot to determine what I was going to write in this chapter, and again, I hope you're not disappointed at the end result.

I had always intended for the teens to step up and take charge just like they did in the manga and anime. But since I wanted to be realistic in my story, I wanted it to be where Jim mentors the teens as I believe any caring adult would do in such a situation, and have him teach the teens to be able to take care of themselves and each other, as well as being their protector as they travel along.

Originally, when I began this chapter, I began to think about writing this story so that the teens are dragged away by Yuriko and her guards, and Saeko and Jim are left behind to fend for themselves, while Komuro and the rest have to deal with living without Saeko and Jim at Takagi Manor.

Part of my inspiration for wanting to go that route was from the new video game that was just recently released "The Last of Us."

I was thinking of having Jim recover from his wounds and having him and Saeko travel across the river and through town alone, and then later meet up with the rest of the cast at the mall after the EMP. I was going to have them come across the now battle-torn Takagi Manor and meet up with Saya's parents who had just barely survived the onslaught of the Infected and that Jim and Saeko would be treated a lot better by the Takagi's, Saeko would get her sword and Jim have his weapons returned as they went to find the rest of the teens.

Instead, especially after writing the part of the story of how lost and alone Saeko feels with Jim lying unconscious on the floor and all her friends carried away, I decided the story would be better if **all** of the teens finally stepped up and showed their stronger side and took care of Jim, and helped Saeko in their greatest moment of need.

Now that the direction of the story is now settled, I have had some readers ask me recently if the other teens will start to have more dialogue in the story, most notably Takashi and Rei who haven't said a whole lot up to now.

The answer?

Most definitely yes, especially now with Jim down for the count, so it really is the right time for Takashi to start taking charge, and also for Rei to show her strengths as well.

So bear with me, writing realistic dialogue for three teenage girls, two teenage boys, one female nurse and a ten year old girl aint easy for a forty-four year old man to do.

But I'll give it my best shot.

And as far as Jim and Saeko having a "Last of Us" scenario?

Well, after "Last Alarm" is finished, and if I'm not completely burned out by that time from writing, I might be interested in writing a sequel.

So maybe Jim, Saeko and "Mom" who will be identified in the story later, will have another story to tell, a year or so later **after **the Outbreak, in the near future.

Thanks again for all of your kind reviews and your continued support, and I'll be working on the next chapter.


	26. Chapter 25-A Child's Love Part Two

Last Alarm

Chapter Twenty-Five

"A Child's Love"

Part Two

* * *

"_A daughter without her mother is a woman broken." _Kristin Hannah

* * *

On that fateful third day of the Outbreak when Saya's mother ran hurriedly out of Rika's Minami's condominium and out into the street in a worried frenzy that her young daughter was hurt or perhaps worse from the way the guards were avoiding answering any of Yuriko's questions, Yuriko was indeed shocked at what she saw when she finally arrived.

However, it was nothing at all like what she had expected to see.

Not only was Saya visibly unhurt, but what really had Yuriko standing there stunned in disbelief was the sight of all of the guards that had been dragging the children to the awaiting vehicles outside had somehow been soundly beaten back by Saya and her friends, with all of the men now lying battered or bleeding all around the children and their nurse.

And what remaining guards that were not wounded and still left standing were now being held off by the three remaining women of the group, including her own daughter Saya, who were all standing back to-back protecting the two boys and the little girl.

All of them brandishing the same type of large folding knife, which the young girl who had beaten Yuriko and her bodyguard Yoshioka earlier had used to protect the American lying near death, inside the condo.

It was a moment that neither Mother nor daughter would ever forget for the rest of their lives.

* * *

And later on in her adult life, when the Outbreak was no more than a distant memory in the minds of most of surviving mankind, but was still very much a constant nightmare for Saya of that horrible time in her youth.

Saya would finally grew weary of the constant pestering from her own teenage children, urging her to relate to them exactly what had happened to her and her friends during that horrific time in human history.

And after years of silence, Saya finally relented, and agreed to tell them of the nightmare that still haunted her and her friends down to this day.

And as Saya gathered her now teenage children on a very familiar hill under one of the many large sakura trees not far away from the sea, she finally related the story of her experiences as one of the survivors of the infamous "Tokonosu Ten," and told her children **almost** every detail about what had happened during that fateful time in her life.

Almost every detail.

There were still some things that Saya refused to **ever** tell her children, because even now so many years later, the pain of those horrible memories still haunted her too much.

* * *

The memory of a nightmarish time in her life when she and a small group of her classmates were fighting for their lives in the middle of a city that was in the throes of panic and chaos, with death a mere heartbeat away was horrifying enough.

Some parts of her story though, were better left unsaid.

And as Saya and her children sat atop the lonely hill with the teens listening intently as their mother related her story, Saya then arrived at that particular moment when she faced her own mother defiantly in the middle of a now desolate city street with death closing in on them.

It was on that hill that Saya would then confess to her sons and daughters that she was unable to recall a time ever having been as angry at her mother as she was on that particular day in her youth.

* * *

"Before the Outbreak, my mother and I had always been at odds with each other most of the time, and the halls of Takagi Manor would often echo with our angry shouts." Saya laughed as she looked into the faces of her teenage children as she related the story of her and her friend's escape from the Infected.

"But that day was especially emotionally charged between Mother and I." Saya said, recalling the confrontation between the two women of the Takagi House out on that desolate city street in that city of the dead, as she continued.

"And because of that confrontation, things would never be the same between us." Saya said, as her eyes began to moisten with tears at the memory, as her children moved closer and listened to her more intently.

* * *

On that day so many years ago when Saya Takagi was still a very young frightened girl in her teens, the joy that she had felt at seeing her mother after the horror of the past couple of days was now lost as the **fury** she now felt at seeing her friends accosted, scared out of their wits, and their friend and guardian of the past two days, the American mercenary, being severely beaten and lying near death inside the condo that they had all just been dragged away from, came over her.

And as infuriated as she was, the strict upbringing and years of parental training in proper etiquette and polite behavior expected of someone of her class went out the window as she boldly spoke out in protest from her heart about the injustice around her.

And in front of all the guards and her friends, Saya did not hold back her fury in the presence of her mother the slightest bit.

* * *

"I'm afraid I set proper Takagi etiquette and dignity back about one hundred years, when I lost my temper and started screaming at everyone like a madwoman." Saya said slightly blushing at the memory of the spectacle she had made of herself when she began screaming at the guards.

"And then I really caused an ugly scene when I then started screaming at your grandmother in front of everyone when she finally arrived outside." Saya said smiling as her children giggled around her at the thought of their mother dressed in her school uniform, still wearing glasses, and with her then pink-dyed hair in ponytails screaming at their grandmother in rage and holding off everyone with a knife.

"And waving this thing around wasn't all that "lady-like" either." Saya said as she reached into a pocket in her skirt and pulled the same tan-colored knife she had used that day and had always kept with her ever since, and then flicked the blade open.

"Whooooooooaaaaa." Saya's children said in awe as they looked at the large tan-colored knife in her hand.

"Mom, that is wicked,… COOL!" Saya's son Ryuunosuke said as he practically shoved his sisters out of the way trying to get a closer look at the knife as they smacked him on his arms for being so rude.

"Mama, can I hold it?" Reiko, her youngest daughter asked trying to beat her brother to the punch.

"Not till all of you are older." Saya said smiling as everyone's faces dropped in dismay as she closed the knife and placed it back in her pocket.

"Awwwww." Reiko and Ryuunosuke said, as Saya giggled at her children's disappointment and then continued on with her story.

* * *

"**OKASAN!"** Saya screamed angrily, her voice echoing down the long empty street and arousing the interest of the Infected slowly approaching their position.

"**WE…ARE…NOT…LEAVING!"** Saya screamed, looking directly into her mother's shocked face as Yuriko stared at the sudden spectacle before her, as well as trying to cope with the shock of her own daughter defiantly waving a knife at everyone, as well as speaking so disrespectfully towards her own mother.

Regaining her composure, Yuriko then glared at Saya with fury at her disruptive behavior and loudly began to scold her in front of everyone.

Saya however was not intimidated by her mother's angry glare or the tongue-lashing that followed as she scowled fiercely back at her mother, the anger and contempt that she felt at her mother for the terror and brutality she and her friends had to endure at the hands of the guards, after everything that they had already had to endure the past two days, plainly visible on her face.

And as infuriated as she was, not even the normally ominous presence of her father would have intimidated her either.

In fact, his absence only infuriated her even further.

* * *

Just earlier that very morning, Saya and her friends had been happily eating breakfast and talking amongst themselves about their adventures of the last two days, breathing a sigh of relief at having survived the experience and also conversing about how happy they would be to be reunited with their families by the end of the day if all went well.

The atmosphere in the luxurious condo owned by Shizuka's friend that they had sought shelter in that night seemed like more of a casual sleep-over with friends than that of them desperately seeking refuge from the horrors outside.

"At that time,…." Saya said to her children as they were sitting around her.

"It all actually felt like we were just having fun." Saya said with a smile as her children smiled along with her, happy to see their mother smiling after what seemed like years since they had seen their mother do so.

Their mother seemed to smile less and less it seemed, and it was always a welcome sight to see their mother smiling, if even for a moment.

* * *

"We were all laughing and having a good time, and even I was laughing too, especially after seeing your "Uncle Jimu" as he made faces at the food your "Aunt Shizuka" set before him." Saya continued, as she and her children all laughed for a moment at the image of the big man making faces like a little child.

And then Saya's children stared sadly at their mother as her eyes began to tear again unexpectedly.

And all of them wished that there was something that they could do to take away the pain that lay deep within their mother's heart, all of them regretting that they had caused old wounds to open up once again.

"It seems that it's especially around this time of year that Mother starts to get so emotional." Saya's oldest daughter Midori thought, as she worriedly looked over at her mother who was trying hard to control her emotions in front of her children.

Even their father who was always so happy and joyful most of the time, became solemn around this time of year and seldom talked very much to any of them either, Midori thought sadly as she watched her mother trying to wipe away her tears.

And as they watched their mother trying so hard to keep from losing control of her emotions in front of them, all of Saya's children then began to regret having badgered their mother so much to tell them about her experiences during the Outbreak, as they all sat quietly around their mother with heads hung, atop the lonely hill near the once bustling city of Tokonosu that now sat quietly in the distance, a mere shell of its former self.

Saya looked away from her children for a moment as she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and then paused for a few moments more to compose herself.

And then as she looked again upon her children, her face was no longer smiling as she continued on with her story…..

* * *

But then suddenly in the middle of their breakfast conversation, the doors to the condo that they had sought shelter in, exploded inward on all sides from the blows of sledgehammers forcing them opened with a crash.

The sudden and completely unexpected violent entry frightening all of them half to death, as Saya and her friends were then pounced upon by over a dozen heavily armed men dressed completely in black from head to toe, who then rushed in and forcefully pushed them to the floor and held them down, screaming in fear and unable to move, without a clue as to who their attackers were or why they were doing this.

And as if all that weren't bad enough, then one of their attackers struck their friend and guardian the American mercenary with the butt of his rifle as the man was only trying to calm everyone down.

The American then reacted to the savage blow to his head by instinctively hitting his attacker with an elbow strike to the groin, although the blow was actually made out of instinct at being struck, and not a deliberate attack on the attacker.

Whether the blow was accidental or intentional made no difference to the black-clad men as to what reasons the American had for striking their comrade, because as a result, the rest of them then swarmed over the American and began beating him with the butts of their weapons as everyone else in the room then began screaming louder in fear and protest at the violent attack on their friend.

"But then things really got out of hand when one of the attacker's hit your "Aunt Saeko" across the face when she had yelled for the men to stop beating your "Uncle Jimu." Saya said as she glanced down at the approaching vehicle coming down the road at the bottom of the hill as it then came to a stop and two figures then got out of the vehicle and began walking up the hill towards Saya and her children as she continued on with her story.

* * *

"And after seeing her get hit, then your "Uncle Jimu" really got mad." Saya recounted as her children listened closely, completely absorbed in the story.

"And after seeing your "Aunt Saeko" being hit so hard that she was knocked down to the floor, your "Uncle Jimu" began to beat the man that struck her to a pulp, and when one of the other guards hit him again trying to get him off the man he was beating, then "Uncle Jimu" began single-handedly attacking **all **of the attackers in the room." Saya said as her children's eyes grew wide at the image of the big American taking on a whole room full of armed attackers in defense of their "Aunt Saeko" as well as their own mother and her friends.

"Whooooaaaa." Reiko said as she envisioned her "Uncle" fighting fiercely to defend her favorite "Aunt."

"And it seemed there was no stopping him from tearing the whole place apart,…" Saya said, pausing suddenly.

"That is, until he was beaten nearly to death by one of the other men who had snuck up behind him while he was fighting the other guards." Saya continued as she stopped speaking for a moment, a pained expression forming on her face.

"And then the guard clubbed him with his rifle butt so viciously,…." Saya said pausing as she covered her mouth with her hand as she winced at the memory.

"That part of his scalp was torn off from being hit and he fell to the floor unconscious in a small pool of his own blood." Saya finished as she looked away from her children, suddenly overcome again with emotion.

Saya stopped speaking for a moment, as she closed her eyes and began to cry at the memory of seeing her friend lying there so savagely beaten with part of his skull exposed and blood all over the man's face, pooling on the floor.

* * *

"MOM! Are you okay?!" Her eldest daughter Midori anxiously asked, her face furrowed with concern at seeing her mother so deeply troubled.

For a long moment Saya didn't reply. And then after daubing her eyes she nodded her head and smiled weakly.

"I'm fine Midori-chan." Saya said as she looked into her daughter's face.

"This part is very hard for me to talk about." Saya said apologizing to her children.

"And even your "Aunt Saeko" refuses to talk about it down to this day." Saya thought to herself sadly.

"You don't have to talk about it anymore mom." Saya's youngest son Ryuunosuke said as he reached up and hugged her. "We understand."

"No, it's all right." Saya said as she returned her son's hug and then hugged each of her children tightly as they all got up and embraced their mother.

"I want all of you to know about your "Uncle Jimu", and all the things he did for us during that horrible time." Saya said as she then released her children and motioned for them to sit down again as she composed herself once more and continued on with her story.

"That way you'll understand why,…" Saya whispered under her breath, her voice trailing off.

* * *

"And now while he was lying there almost near death, your "Uncle Jimu" was about to be executed as a precaution by Yoshioka-san, who was under orders to kill him so he wouldn't follow us, while my friends and I were being dragged away despite our desperate pleas for mercy for him." Saya said sniffing.

"And to my horror, the person responsible for turning our world upside down all over again was none other than my own mother." Saya said as she looked into the faces of her children.

"We were then dragged roughly outside towards a small caravan of three panel vans and a black Land Rover that had been parked out in the street as everyone was struggling as hard as we could to get away from our captors, without success." Saya continued.

"All except for one of us, that is." Saya said as she gazed fondly at the two figures silently approaching them, completely unnoticed by her children who were so deeply absorbed in their mother's story.

"Saeko-obachan?!" Reiko replied loudly as everyone laughed at her excited response.

Of all of Saya's children, Reiko was the only one who practically worshipped their "Aunt Saeko," and her excitement over hearing the many stories of her "Aunt Saeko's" accomplishments in combat never seemed to waver.

"Hai, Reiko-chan, it was your "Aunt Saeko." Saya said smiling at her youngest daughter's beaming face as Saya began to animatedly explain how Saeko and everyone then had managed to gain the upper hand over their captors.

* * *

At that moment, when everything seemed hopeless, Saeko in desperation managed to disable a guard and briefly incapacitate him with an elbow strike to the face and a knee strike to the groin, sending him painfully to the ground.

Now free from her captor, she then turned back to face the others pulling the large folding knife she carried under the large tee-shirt she was wearing.

And as Saeko raised the large folding knife that the American had given the women earlier and screamed to Saya and the others that the American would be killed unless they fought their captors, only then did Saya remember about the knife that the American had given her to defend herself with, Saya having completely forgotten about it in the shock of their capture.

And as she saw Shizuka and Rei reach for their knives that were concealed on their person, Saya blushed slightly as she stopped her struggles and reached underneath her blouse for the knife that was clipped to the band on her skirt.

Saya grabbed it and then flicked the blade open, cursing loudly as she nearly dropped the knife as she fumbled with the unfamiliar object in her hands.

And then hesitating for a moment at the horrible thought of injuring another human being, Saya then closed her eyes, and placing the point of the knife tentatively over her captor's hands, gingerly stabbed downward.

* * *

"Except for that one Infected teacher back at my school, I had never hurt another human being before." Saya said, slightly embarrassed.

"And so as I raised the knife to stab the guard's hand so he would release me, I was so scared at having that knife in my hands that I almost stabbed myself instead." Saya said as her children began giggling loudly.

* * *

"OW!" The man yelled as the point of the knife poked him in the soft tissue of his hand between his thumb and forefinger as he immediately let go of Saya, and then started shaking his hand and staring at the oozing blood from the very minor wound as Saya fell to the ground and then squeaked loudly as she landed on her butt.

The wounded guard lost all interest in his teenage captive as he quickly looked at the small wound on his hand and the oozing blood coming from it.

And then becoming more concerned with the small wound on his hand than the newly found freedom of his prisoner, he then absent-mindedly yanked off his black mask from off his head and placed it over the small puncture in an attempt to stem the bleeding from the small wound.

While the wound had barely been more than a small puncture due in no small part to Saya's hesitation at not wanting to really hurt the man, Saya felt as if she were about to throw up after seeing the small amount of blood on the tip of her blade as she sat there on the ground staring at the blade in shock.

Unlike the Infected teacher she had killed at her school and all the blood she had seen spilled since the Outbreak, somehow knowing that she had intentionally hurt someone that was still "normal" made Saya physically ill for some reason.

That is, until she saw the man's face after he had removed his mask.

* * *

"And after I saw who it was." Saya said with a smirk. "Then I forgot all about being scared."

"And then I really made an ass of myself." Saya said blushing.

* * *

"**MATSUDO-SAN?!"** Saya said in disbelief.

"Yo! Saya-sama, O genki desu ka?!" The Takagi family mechanic said rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment for having accidentally revealed his identity.

**"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HOW AM I DOING, *AHOU ?!"** Saya screamed in rage as she jumped angrily to her feet and yelled in the man's face as he shrunk back.

(*Ahou- Japanese slang for idiot or moron)

"**AND WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING MANHANDLING ME LIKE THAT, YOU LECH?!"** Saya screamed, enraged and embarrassed at where the man's hands had been as he tried to get a firmer grip on her earlier when they had been struggling.

"A-Ano." The mechanic replied, a little intimidated at being yelled at by the daughter of the powerful Takagi House.

Even though the mechanic and all of the other guards all worked for Lord and Lady Takagi, **technically,** they all answered to Saya as well.

And right now the **"Little Boss"** was pissed, and her anger was now directed at **him**.

"**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE ANYWAY?!"** Saya screamed growing angrier by the minute as she continued to glare at the mechanic while her friends were fighting hand-to-hand with the guards around her.

* * *

"SAYA!" Rei yelled at the hot-head who seemed to be oblivious to everyone else's plight.

"WILL YOU QUIT SCREWING AROUND AND FIGHT?!" Rei yelled as she punched a guard in the face and then did a roundhouse kick at another guard knocking him against one of the vans with a loud thud.

Being a skilled practice of sojutsu, Rei was no stranger to edged weapons or unarmed combat, and while the folding knife that the American had given her was no *yari by any stretch of the imagination, it was still a bladed-weapon that was still **very** deadly in her more than capable hands.

(*Yari- Japanese spear)

Which she had quickly demonstrated to her captor earlier when Rei finally retrieved her own knife from under her skirt and then flicking the blade of her knife open and grasping it firmly in her right hand in a reverse-grip, cleanly sliced the arm of the man holding her, causing him to scream in pain and then suddenly release her as she dropped to her feet.

Unlike Saya who was more used to using her voice as a weapon instead of the knife in her hand, Rei was an experienced and highly skilled fighter and didn't hesitate to act once she was free from her attacker.

And as soon as Rei landed on her feet, she didn't even bother with defending herself.

She went on the attack.

* * *

And as the man who had been holding her captive grabbed his bleeding arm, Rei then spun around and slashed her knife at the man again, slicing his other arm as the man then jumped away from her and started howling even louder from pain and surprise as he lost his balance and then fell heavily to the ground.

With the man no longer a threat, Rei then spun around and roared in anger as she then charged the man that was still holding Takashi, who after seeing the knife-wielding teenage girl rushing at him, realized that he was now in a very bad situation, unable to reach his weapon that was slung behind his back while he was still holding the still-struggling boy in his arms.

Rather than risk injury or possible death, the man instantly dropped the boy and jumped away from him reaching around for his slung rifle and then bringing the muzzle up to bear once he had the weapon in his hands.

Rei quickly dodged around Takashi and then lunged forward and slapped the muzzle of the man's rifle away with one hand as she slashed downward with her knife, severing the rifle sling as the man jumped away from the swinging blade and let his rifle drop to the ground with a clatter as the strap parted.

Still not yet through with the man, Rei then slashed her knife at the now defenseless guard who instinctively raised his hands to protect himself.

Instead of cutting him, Rei moved to the side as Takashi quickly stepped in and punched the man hard in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him, as Rei then followed up with a brutal kick that knocked the man backwards as he collided with the man holding Kouta captive.

All three men then fell to the ground with a crash as Rei then rushed up and kicked the man holding Kouta in the face, briefly stunning him as the other man tried to scramble away only to be savagely booted by Takashi in the rear.

Untangling himself from his captor with the help of his friends , Kouta then quickly scrambled to his feet, bruised but otherwise unhurt, as the three teens then turned to face the guards still holding Shizuka and Alice captive.

* * *

Alice was still being held fast in the arms of one guard, crying and screaming at the top of her voice as she flailed her arms and legs while the puppy was pulling on the guard's pant leg with his teeth.

Shizuka on the other hand, had finally managed to free herself from her own captor and had also gotten into the fight.

And to everyone's surprise, Shizuka was actually faring better than anybody would have expected.

"But it wasn't the most dignified fighting style in the history of combat." Saya said to her children as she began to laugh hysterically.

* * *

By nature a very kind and timid individual, Shizuka was not at all very motivated to grab her knife and begin attacking the men holding her captive like Rei and Saya had.

But when faced with the fact that their American friend was going to die without their help, Shizuka reluctantly reached down deep within hersel to find the strength she needed to join the fight.

And as panicked tears fell from her face, she then reached into her robe and pulled the knife out of her bra and flicked the knife open.

But instead of trying to break free from her captor by wounding him with the knife however, Shizuka merely raised the blade with both hands into the air and began screaming at the top of her lungs as she started wildly swinging the knife around in all directions.

Having already seen three of his comrades already wounded by the knife-wielding teens, the man holding Shizuka wanted no part of being on the injured list and immediately dropped her as she began swinging the knife wildly in the air as he then turned on his heel to run away from her.

Unfortunately, he was just not fast enough as Shizuka swung her whole body around and accidentally slashed his arm just as the man had turned to run, causing him to scream in pain and surprise at being cut, although in reality, the wound itself was actually very minor because of Shizuka's wild swinging.

"GOMEN NASAI!" Shizuka screamed out loud as she continued swinging the knife wildly, holding the knife in both hands like a sword.

"With her eyes** closed**." Saya said between fits of hysterical laughter as her children looked at their mother wide-eyed and their mouths agape, in disbelief.

* * *

The rest of the guards, including the one still holding Alice, gave up on trying to detain the children and dove for cover in all directions trying to avoid the crazy woman wildly swinging her knife with her eyes closed as Rei, Takashi, and Kouta ran towards Alice and then held her close to them, shielding her as Rei warded off the rest of the guards with her knife.

Unluckily for the teens, the person they needed to fear was no longer the black-clad guards of the Takagi house, but the wildly screaming, completely panicked woman still swinging the large knife with her eyes closed that was now forcing **everyone **to duck for cover.

Takashi and Kouta knelt down, covering Alice with their bodies as Shizuka flailed her knife wildly in all directions with her eyes closed, screaming all the while as the Takagi guards stepped back or dove to the ground trying to avoid being cut.

"You should have seen the look on everyone's faces as your "Aunt Shizuka" was waving that knife around like a crazy woman." Saya said daubing the tears from her eyes from laughing so hard. "It was priceless."

* * *

"SENSEI! WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Rei screeched after nearly being slashed by one of Shizuka's wild flailings.

"STOP WAVING THAT KNIFE AROUND! YOU'RE GOING TO,…..**WAAAAAAUGH!"** Rei screamed as she ducked below a wild swing of Shizuka's arm.

"SHIZUKA!" Takashi screamed. "OPEN YOUR EYES AND PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN, DAMMIT!

"SENSEI!" Kouta screamed wide-eyed as the air was cut over his head. "STOP IT! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!"

"OBA-CHAN!" Alice screamed as Kouta and Takashi covered her body with theirs.

Shizuka however, was in full blown panic mode, driven even more so by the loud panicked screams of the children and of their equally terrified captors all yelling at her at once, as she then stumbled and then lost her balance slightly and began to pivot towards the two boys and Alice, the knife in her hand for all intents and purposes looming as large and as menacing as the scythe of the Grim Reaper as it slashed towards them.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"** The boys and Alice screamed as Shizuka stumbled towards them.

"**ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!"** Saya screamed at the top of her voice as she turned her attention away from the man in front of her and towards the annoying ruckus behind her.

All movement ceased at the sound of the young teen's roar as Shizuka finally snapped out of her panicked trance and somehow managed to regain her footing, much to the relief of everyone, especially the three that were staring at the large blade mere inches away from their faces.

* * *

Saya glared in frustration at everyone around her as she then turned her attention back to the mechanic, the scowl on her face deepening as her blood boiled.

"**Matsudo-san."** Saya said in a voice so menacing the mechanic started to shiver, and not from the cool morning breeze that was blowing through the street either.

"**Whose STUPID idea was all of this?!"** Saya said angrily as everyone including the guards, stopped to watch the odd exchange between the two.

The mechanic looked away nervously as he tried to avoid looking into the teenager's eyes that seemed to be staring right into his soul.

"**ANSWER ME!"** Saya roared.

The mechanic jumped back, stunned by the girl's enraged voice and the even angrier look on Saya's face.

"SAYA-SAMA!" The guard that Saeko had disabled cried out as he stumbled towards them his legs shaky and his nose bleeding profusely. "Please stop this, your moth_."

"**YOU, SHUT UP!"** Saya screamed as she pointed her knife at the man who then froze in his tracks and raised his hands in the air, in surrender.

Saya then turned her attention back to the mechanic and glared at him fiercely as he gulped in fear at her stare.

"**Matsudo-saaaaaaan."** Saya hissed. **"Answer me, NOW."**

* * *

The mechanic sucked in his breath and then sighed heavily as he reluctantly conceded defeat and began to explain the circumstances to the angry girl.

"Saya-sama." The man said nervously. "Your father told us that you and your friends were being held captive by a dangerous gaijin that had killed several people near you, and because he wasn't able to come himself, he left it up to your mother on how to attempt a rescue."

"**MY FATHER?!"** Saya replied incredulously, as the mechanic flinched at her angry interruption.

"**If my father thought I was in so much danger, why didn't he come too?"** Saya asked calmly but still enraged, already knowing the answer the mechanic was going to give her as her anger grew.

The mechanic licked his lips nervously as he struggled to answer, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him whole so that he wouldn't have to be the one to give the young girl all the more reason to kill him where he stood.

"Your father was on the other side of the city, commanding a convoy of supplies for all the people now seeking refuge at your home, Saya-sama." The mechanic replied, wincing at the visible anger boiling within the young girl.

"**He was too busy trying to help others than to stop and try to rescue his own daughter, is that what you're saying Matsudo-san?!"** Saya said her eyes narrowing in anger.

"Well,….." The mechanic began, but stopped himself upon seeing the blazing eyes of the young girl staring at him.

"He was just too far away, Saya-sama." Matsudo replied, trying to calm Saya. "And when your mother found out that you were alive and so close by, she decided to organize the rescue herself."

"**WHO SAID I NEEDED RESCUING?!"** Saya screamed in anger as the mechanic shrunk back.

"Takagi, calm down!" Takashi said as everyone watched Saya appearing like she was about to explode.

"**YOU SHUT UP, KOMURO!"** Saya screamed as she pointed her knife at Takashi as he jumped back and stared at her wide-eyed.

"Saya-sama." The mechanic said timidly with his hands slightly raised in a calming gesture. "Please, calm down."

"**Matsudo-san."** Saya said quietly, turning her head to face the mechanic once again and frightening everyone with the calmness of her voice even more than when she was screaming.

"There are only six bodyguards in our entire household." Saya said speaking coldly, ignoring his pleas for her to calm herself.

"And since I'm sure some of them are with my father, and Yoshioka-san is with my mother, then what I want to know is,…"

"**WHO THE HELL ARE ALL THESE OTHER PEOPLE?!"** Saya screamed, gesturing with her knife towards the guards.

* * *

The mechanic gulped as he stared into the face of the angry teen, unable to find the courage within himself to answer her as Saya then glared at the guards and then raising her knife, pointed it at them.

"**YOU MEN! I want all of you to remove your masks and identify yourselves!"** Saya ordered as she glared at the guards who began to exchange nervous glances amongst each other.

"**NOW!"** Saya screamed as the guards jumped in surprise, and then began reluctantly taking off the black hoods that all of them had been wearing.

Shocked that all of their captors were now meekly following Saya's commands, Takashi stared curiously at all of the men as they removed their hoods one-by- one, and then meekly lowered their heads, apparently trying to avoid looking into Saya's angry face.

Having envisioned their captors as being hardened men with cruel faces and cruel eyes, Takashi was more than a little shocked to finally see the faces of their former captors.

They were not at all what he had expected.

The hardened, steely-eyed, merciless thugs that Takashi and his friends had envisioned behind those masks turned out to be way off, as the faces of the men resembled those of men that could have passed for fishermen, schoolteachers, and lawyers than the cold-hearted rogues they had been mistaken for.

* * *

The Takagi guards seemed so much smaller and meeker than before, now with their faces exposed.

They were a mix of different sizes and ages, some appearing to be in their late 60's with a few of the younger looking ones perhaps in their early 40's.

Some of the older men seemed to be quite pale in appearance, as if they seldom ever came outdoors, while the rest were darker complected, as if they had been working outdoors for years.

But the one thing they all seemed to have in common was the way each of them looked as if they were more than a little embarrassed at being recognized by Saya.

And as Takashi and his friends were about to find out, they had good reason to be embarrassed.

And as he looked upon the faces of their former captors and scratched his head puzzled by the sudden change in the guard's demeanor, Takashi was suddenly startled to hear a weird strangling noise coming from Saya as he quickly whirled around to look at her and gasped at her face that seemed to have paled considerably as if she were choking on something.

"I couldn't believe my eyes at who my mother had brought to perform her little "rescue"." Saya said to her children as she placed her left hand over her eyes and shook her head.

* * *

Rei had also quickly turned her head as well at what sounded like Saya being strangled and was alarmed to see that Saya was no longer scowling nor was her face red with anger as before.

But instead, her face had suddenly turned pale as if she were in the throes of deep shock, as she began to mumble out the names of the men around them, all of them whom she obviously recognized.

"Fujiyama-san, Hattori-san, Sato-san, Tanaka-san, Yoshida-san, Ito-san, Yamada-san, Nakamura-san, Kobayashii-saaaa,…." Saya said as her voice began to trail off before she could finish naming all the guards surrounding her and her friends as she began to feel light-headed.

Reeling a bit, Saya then glanced over at the big man that had been Saeko's former captor.

"**KUKUGARI-SAN?!"** Saya said in obvious disbelief as soon as she recognized the face of the man Saeko had assaulted as he pulled off his mask.

"Ohayo, Saya-sama." The man said in a meek voice, obviously deeply embarrassed at being recognized.

"Takagi-san, are you all right?" Kouta asked, worried at seeing Saya seeming like she was about to faint.

"I-I-I." Saya stammered as she took a step back and really did seem as if she was about to faint, as she then began to pivot.

"**SAYA-SAMA!"** All of the guards yelled as it appeared that Saya was about to pass out.

"Y-Y-Y-YOU'RE,…." Saya continued, seeming to be struggling to speak despite the fact she was just about to fall to the ground.

Saya suddenly snapped out of her daze and then quickly regained her composure.

Which for Saya, was the equivalent of a bomb going off.

"**YOU'RE ALL FIRED!"** Saya screamed in rage as she pointed her knife at every one of the guards around them as Takashi and the rest of the group watched in fear and confusion.

* * *

Saya paused for a moment and blushed as all of her children suddenly began to roar with laughter.

BWAHAHAHA!" Saya's daughter Midori laughed as she wiped her eyes. "MOM,YOU REALLY SAID THAT?!"

"HAAHAAHAA!" One of Saya's other daughter's Miyuki howled as she rolled on the grass. "Mom, you're kidding right?!"

"No, that's something she would say all right! HEEEHEEEHEEE!" Kiku, her second oldest daughter asked as she burst out in laughter again.

Saya gave a nasty look towards her son as Ryuunosuke was really hamming it up and pounding the ground with his fist as he lay on his stomach laughing.

"**Oh shut up, all of you!"** Saya snapped as she glared at all of her children that were all laughing like idiots.

"I was pissed off, so all of you behave or I'm not going to finish telling you what happened!" Saya said as she waited for her children to settle down so she could continue.

* * *

There was nothing but dead silence from everyone for a moment as all eyes were focused on the enraged teenager brandishing the large knife in her hand until the silence was finally broken by the sound of someone whining in despair.

"Sonnaaa." One of the guards said in despair at losing his job.

Saya however, had no sympathy as once again she pointed her knife at the man known as Kukugari and spoke in a voice so filled with venom, it scared everyone, as well as the guard.

"**Kukugari-san."** Saya hissed. "Go back inside and tell my mother to come out here right now, and if she even **thinks** of harming any of my friends,…

"I won't forgive her or **you**. UNDERSTAND?" Saya said as the air seemed to crackle around her.

The guard gulped as he stared at the girl's hate-filled eyes and then quickly stumbled off to do his mistresses' bidding without a word.

Saya angrily watched him leave and then suddenly snapped her head around, glaring at everyone around her as they all jumped in fright at her savage look.

Even Takashi and the rest of the group flinched at the terrifying expression on Saya's face.

* * *

"**Both of you form up around Komuro and the others."** Saya angrily ordered Rei and Shizuka as she began walking towards them as they hurriedly rushed into a protective position around Takashi, Kouta, and Alice without a word.

"**Protect them with your lives; because once my mother comes out here, she's going to want to make another attempt to subdue us."** Saya said as she took up a position in front of her friends facing the gate as she readied herself to face her mother.

"**And we are not going to let her."** Saya said, gritting her teeth as she turned around and faced the gates, brandishing her knife like a sword in front of her.

"Saya,_" Takashi began, as he tried to make another feeble attempt to try calm the girl down.

"**Don't you DARE, say anything to me right now, Komuro-kun."** Saya said as she glared back at him angrily.

Takashi flinched, as he suddenly found himself rendered speechless as he gazed into Saya's wild eyes.

"**I'M HANDLING THIS!"** Saya roared as she then cast her gaze upon Kouta who gulped in terror at suddenly being caught in her angry gaze.

"**Hiiiirano."** Saya hissed as she smiled evily at Kouta who suddenly began to fear for his own life as he stared at the large knife clutched tightly in her hands.

"**If you EVER tell me to shut up again, I will make you PAY,….. DEARLY." **

"**I PROMISE YOU."** Saya said as Alice started to cry at Saya's frightening look while even the puppy seemed to shrink back from the terrifying sight as well.

"H-Hai, Takagi-sama." Kouta said visibly shaken, as he held Alice closely and tried to comfort her.

"**I thought I told you to call me "Saya", fatty!"** Saya said as she continued to glare at him.

"Ha-Hai, Saya-san." Kouta said apologetically.

Shizuka and Rei wisely said nothing as they both turned away from the angry teenage girl's gaze and focused on the men surrounding them, who now seemed strangely enough, to be too terrified to move.

* * *

"Just what the HELL, is really going on here?" Rei whispered to Takashi as she looked all around at the visibly shaken guards who had been so easily cowered by Saya, when just a short while ago they had seemed so fierce and intimidating earlier.

"I don't know." Takashi said with a shrug as he looked over at Saya and then met Rei's eyes. "But as long as they're the ones Takagi is pissed off at right now and not us, I'm staying out of it."

"Aren't you going to do anything at **all,** fearless leader?!" Rei whispered loudly in disgust at the weird predicament they were in.

Takashi sighed as he once again, looked over at the enraged form of Saya standing a few feet away.

"Right now, she's the only thing keeping us from being captured by these guys again." Takashi replied.

"And until her mother comes back outside and is hopefully more willing to listen to reason now that the tables have been turned, there's really not much more we can do for now." Takashi said as he looked towards the open gate in frustration.

"I don't believe this." Rei said shaking her head in frustration as she snorted in disgust.

And then after a few agonizing moments of waiting as Saya did a slow boil, the man Kukugari finally returned.

* * *

But instead of being followed by Saya's mother as was expected, the man was instead being closely followed by Yuriko's bodyguard Yoshioka, who like Kukugari, was also sporting a bloody nose.

And as he ran towards them, Takashi noticed that the man was also coughing and rubbing his throat as well.

"That **has** to be Saeko's doing." Takashi said under his breath with a smirk as the man walked up towards them and then stood in front of Saya.

But then Takashi began to sweat, as he could clearly begin to see the muscles on Saya's neck and shoulders tense knowing that Saya was about to go into orbit at seeing that her mother had obviously ignored her daughter's demands that she come at once and sent her bodyguard to solve the situation instead.

"Ooooh, this is going to be ugly." Takashi thought to himself.

* * *

And before either man could utter a single word, Saya angrily spoke first.

And surprisingly enough as if it were humanly possible, her voice sounded even angrier and more terrifying than before, Takashi thought.

"**Kukugari-san."** Saya began in a voice so calm that it sounded even more frightening than Saeko when she was angry.

"**I TOLD you to get my mother, NOT Yoshioka-san."** Saya said gritting her teeth.

"**WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!"** Saya exploded, as the two guards flinched at her angry shout.

"Takagi-dono." Yoshioka began, his voice sounding a little hoarse, more than a little surprised to see the reasons for the tense situation outside that had made Kukugari so reluctant to speak about in front of Yuriko Takagi and the young girl protecting the unconscious American.

"And just when I thought things couldn't possibly get more ridiculous with these children." Yoshioka thought. "Now I have Saya-sama holding everyone at knifepoint while an entire city of Infected is about to swoop down on us and at the same time, her mother is being held hostage by another crazy girl inside."

"Saya-sama," Yoshioka sighed, deeply frustrated that his well-laid plans for this rescue had been foiled by a bunch of "kids."

"Your mother is inside trying to talk some sense into your other young friend who is being quite unreasonable with us right now and refuses to leave the American's side even though the danger to all of is increasing the longer we stay here. And because of that, she sent me here to check up on all of you and see if all of you were all right." Yoshioka replied to the angry teen.

"Now please Saya-sama, we don't have time for,…" Yoshioka began, trying to calm Saya down as he began slowly reaching for the knife.

"**DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME YOSHIOKA-SAN!"** Saya yelled as she slashed the knife towards the man who quickly backed away, his eyes widening at her malevolence.

"Saya-CHAN!" Yoshioka began, trying to speak authoritatively in an effort to calm the girl down and quash the tense situation.

"But this time," Saya smirked as her children stared wide-eyed at her. " I was **not** going to let anyone treat me like a little girl again."

* * *

"**DON'T YOU DARE **_CHAN_**, ME, YOSHIOKA-SAN!"** Saya roared, completely catching the Head of Security off guard with her retort.

"**I AM NOT SOME SPOILED PRINCESS LIKE ALL OF YOU THINK I AM, MISTER!"** Saya shouted as everyone watched the tiny pink-haired teen squaring off against the Chief of Security of the Takagi Household.

"**I AM THE DAUGHTER OF SOICHIRO AND YURIKO TAKAGI OF THE TAKAGI HOUSE, AND I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR BULLSHIT THAT I'M GOING TO TAKE FROM YOU TODAY!"** Saya roared as she pointed the knife towards Yoshioka in a threatening manner.

"**Takagi-dono!"** Yoshioka replied, getting very angry now. "We have no time for this! The Infected are just down the street!"

"Then I suggest you hurry back and get my mother, **Yoshioka-SAN!"** Saya shot back defiantly.

"BECAUSE UNLESS ALL OF YOU WANT TO DIE THIS DAY, THEN YOU MARCH RIGHT BACK IN THERE AND TELL MY MOTHER TO GET HER ASS OUT HERE, RIGHT NOW!"

* * *

Takashi watched nervously as the Security Chief of the Takagi Family swore under his breath as he glared angrily at Saya for a moment and then cast his angry gaze towards the rest of them, and then shook his head in frustration as he spat on the ground.

And then motioning for the other man Kukugari to take over, he then turned and ran through the gates back up towards the condo to retrieve Saya's mother.

Takashi sighed as he looked down towards Kouta who was still holding Alice who had stopped crying, but was still sniffling a bit.

"You guys, okay?" Takashi asked smiling at Alice as she looked up at him.

"Onii-chan, I want to go home." Alice said sniffling, as Kouta merely gave a "thumbs up" in response, not wanting to attract Saya's attention again.

"Don't worry Arisu-chan, we'll be leaving soon." Takashi said as he gently patted her head.

Takashi then glanced towards Rei who was gritting her teeth in frustration, and not wanting to incur her wrath, he then he looked over at Shizuka, who looked like she was about to pee herself.

"Marikawa-sensei, are you all right?" Takashi asked her, worried that she might go into another fit of hysterics again.

"H-Hai." Shizuka replied, her hands shaking as she clutched the knife so tightly, her knuckles paled.

"Don't worry, Sensei. It'll be all right." Rei said consolingly, not eager to be on the wrong end of Shizuka's knife again.

Shizuka nodded her head that she was fine, although in fact she was actually petrified with fear, and as if things weren't bad enough.

She really **did** need to go to the bathroom,…..**badly.**

* * *

The normally docile nurse was in a situation that she never dreamed she would ever find herself in. Armed with a knife and forced to protect the lives and safety of the children around her by holding off a group of men that had attacked her and the children only a few minutes earlier.

Shizuka's hands were visibly shaking partly because of the fear she felt and partly because the knife she held felt so strange in her hands, so unfamiliar, alien… **evil.**

And it was all she could do to keep herself from throwing it on the ground and running away from everyone as scared as she was right now.

Sometimes though, when fear seems about to overwhelm even the stoutest person, somewhere deep within our soul, a small inner strength within us surfaces at a time we need it most, and then a courage we never knew we had will give us the strength to conquer any fear.

And thus at a time when Shizuka was the most afraid, a strength Shizuka never even knew she had, finally came to her at a time when **someone else,** needed it most.

And the reason that it came to her at that particular moment was because of a small voice behind her from the little girl that had come to rely on Shizuka's strength and more importantly her love more than the former school nurse had realized.

"Oba-chan,… I'm scared." Shizuka heard Alice say as Kouta and Takashi held her between them, guarding over her as she and Rei continued to keep their captors at bay with their knives.

Shizuka suddenly stopped her nervous shaking at the sound of the child's voice calling out to her in fear.

The very same scared voice from that same frightened child who had cried so pitifully in her arms after they had returned to the condo after that terrifying rescue last night.

The same child that had cried in her sleep during the night as Shizuka lay next to her and held her close trying to comfort her until she began sleeping quietly again.

The same child that had screamed in fear as the attackers burst into the condo and then dragged them all out into the street while Shizuka and her friends had been unable to stop them.

The same child that was calling out to her right now, at a time that the child needed Shizuka's strength and reassurance the most.

And the fear that had taken such a firm grip over the shy, timid,school nurse immediately left her as she suddenly found herself growing angry at the men around her for frightening the child so much after all the tragedy that had already befallen her.

"How DARE they treat all of us this way." Shizuka thought as fear turned to anger.

"How dare they kill Jimu-san and then mistreat the children and say they're just trying to "rescue us." Shizuka thought as anger turned to rage.

"**HOW DARE THEY FRIGHTEN THIS POOR, INNOCENT CHILD AFTER ALL SHE'S ALREADY HAD TO SUFFER?!"** Shizuka thought, as rage turned to hate.

* * *

The men standing in front of Shizuka began to visibly pale as the look on Shizuka's face changed considerably.

"Don't worry, Arisu-chan." Shizuka said to Alice as she turned her head and looked down at the visibly frightened child whose face was wet with tears.

"Everything is going to be all right, so don't be frightened my child, okay?" Shizuka said, smiling sweetly at the girl as Alice looked up at her and nodded her head.

"Oba-chan, honto?" Alice said sniffling.

"Hai. Don't worry Arisu-chan, they won't do anything to hurt you, I promise." Shizuka replied as she then turned her attention back towards the Takagi guards and glared at them with a look that would melt ice.

"**They wouldn't DARE."** Shizuka said out loud so everyone could hear, gritting her teeth as her entire demeanor changed and the guards realized that the shy, docile woman they had encountered earlier was no more.

They could see it in her eyes.

The woman now standing before them was now the most dangerous force on earth known to man.

A mother protecting her child.

And indeed, Alice had no more reason to fear **any** of the men that had frightened her so much that day.

Because after seeing the drastic change in the blond woman's demeanor and the murderous look in her eyes, there wasn't a man among them foolhardy enough to want to try anything against the enraged woman now.

* * *

Noticing the sudden change in Shizuka, Takashi smiled as he saw the determined look on her face, and he knew that there was no way anyone was going to get past the enraged woman protecting her young now.

"You okay?'' Takashi asked looking back again at Rei after hearing her mumble something incoherent.

"Hai, but we really need to figure out what we're going to do Takashi, and quickly." Rei replied looking down towards the end of the street and gesturing with her knife at the approaching danger.

"Because "They" are starting to make their way over here a little faster now because of all the noise and I don't think we have much time left, if you haven't noticed." Rei said gritting her teeth.

Takashi quickly looked down the street and gasped at the sight.

Rei was right, he **hadn't** noticed.

* * *

In the confusion of the fight to free themselves from their captors, and then after being distracted by watching the intense exchange between Saya and the guards, Takashi had completely forgotten about the large mass of Infected one of the guards had been yelling about earlier just before they had all been dragged out of the condo, that were now shuffling towards them at the end of the street.

Unlike last night during their psychotic and mentally and emotionally traumatizing rescue of Alice, this crowd of Infected was much, MUCH larger than the one they had to mow through with the Humvee.

In fact, this particular crowd of Infected coming towards them was **HUGE.**

* * *

It almost seemed to Takashi, that the enormous crowd of Infected he and Saeko had witnessed moving along the river headed for Tokonosu Bashi last night had suddenly changed direction and were now intentionally seeking **them** out.

And now this gigantic crowd of Infected was almost near the still smoldering pile of bodies that the American had set that fire trap for last night.

And it wouldn't be long after they traversed over that makeshift smoldering barrier of bodies, before they would then arrive at their current position and push through into the complex, swarming over it and killing everything in their path.

Already, Takashi could hear the faint screams of people living in the houses at the end of the street being attacked as doors and windows were smashed in by the sheer weight of the vast numbers of Infected pressing in all around and the victims inside were overwhelmed and devoured.

And now with Saya in a state of near frenzy, Takashi realized that if this tense situation wasn't resolved soon, it would be too late for **all** of them.

But as he had mentioned to Rei earlier, right now, Saya's defiant stand was also the only thing keeping them from being dragged away again as captives.

And if there was any chance at all of saving the American mercenary from being killed by the Takagi guards or the Infected, then Saya's stand-off with the guards was the only hope they had.

But time was quickly running out.

* * *

Rei and Takashi held their breath as Saya's mother finally showed up in front of them all and then stopped in her tracks and then stared at them wide-eyed, in shock at what she saw.

And from the look of things, Saeko had obviously gained the upper hand over Saya's mother as well as the other guards, since no one had heard any gunshots after Saeko disappeared.

And with both guards standing there with bloody noses and Yuriko Takagi's hair in a mess, Rei deduced that the Kendo champion had soundly thrashed them all, but good.

"Busujima-sempai, you're awesome!" Rei thought as a smile cracked from her lips.

* * *

But as Rei listened to the heated exchange between mother and daughter, both of them evidently oblivious to the approaching danger, her smile quickly turned into a frown as she watched the Infected looming even closer towards the pile of burned bodies lying in the road.

There were enough bodies lying on the ground forming a small barrier that would serve to keep the newly arriving crowd of Infected occupied for a few minutes once they began to trip and fall over each other.

And as the first bunch of Infected fell on each other and the others shuffling behind them would fall over them and entangle themselves as well, the ensuing chaos would thus prevent the large crowd following closely behind from advancing forward too quickly.

"But it won't hold them off forever." Rei thought as she watched the Infected quickly closing in on the smoldering remains.

"**Komuro, DO SOMETHING!"** Rei hissed at Takashi as Saya and her mother seemed locked into their heated exchange and were most **definitely** oblivious to the danger approaching nearby.

* * *

"**SAYA-CHAN!"** Yuriko said in a loud scolding voice directed towards Saya. **"Just what do you think you and your friends are doing?!"**

"**PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN THIS INSTANT, YOUNG LADY!"** Yuriko shouted, trying to intimidate Saya into obedience as she took a step forward towards the angry teen.

Saya however, stood her ground as she glared right back at her mother's angry face and replied defiantly to her mother.

"**We are not leaving our friends behind mother."** Saya replied in a low, angry voice that betrayed no sense of fear or hesitation. **"And if you try to take us away like prisoners again, we'll fight you with everything we have."**

"Saya, **listen** to me child,…." Yuriko began, trying to calm Saya down and peacefully resolve the tense situation by trying to speak calmly herself.

"**I'M NOT A CHILD, MOTHER!"** Saya shouted as she stood up to her full height. **"STOP TALKING TO ME LIKE I AM ONE!"**

* * *

"Any attempts by my Mother to bring a peaceful end to the tense situation ended as your grandmother responded to my words the way any parent would react to their child speaking out of turn." Saya said frowning slightly as her children looked at her with puzzled expressions on their faces.

"Your grandmother got royally pissed off at me." Saya said flatly.

* * *

"**THEN STOP ACTING SO CHILDISH AND I'LL STOP TREATING YOU LIKE A CHILD!"** Yuriko angrily shouted back.

"**CHILDISH?!" **Saya retorted angrily. "**YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT CHILDISH?!" **

"**How about this stupid half-ass "rescue" you pulled off?"** Saya shouted. **"What kind of idiot uses our groundskeepers and kitchen staff to perform a hostage rescue?!"**

The reaction from the former "captives" to Saya's eye-opening statement about their former "captors" was immediate.

* * *

"Ara?" Shizuka said confused, her anger at the guards abated somewhat**. **"You mean all of these men are your groundskeepers and kitchen help?"

"**You're kidding."** Rei said flabbergasted as she lowered her knife and stared at the man whose arms she had sliced with her knife now still sitting on the ground trying to stop the bleeding with his mask as a bandage.

"She **is** joking, right?" Kouta asked looking ill as he then finally stood up and looked around at the visibly embarrassed men all around them still holding their weapons and looking as if they wanted to throw them away and run home.

"Nope, she's serious." Takashi sighed looking into everyone's embarrassed faces and feeling very stupid.

"We just got our asses kicked by a bunch of gardeners and fry cooks." Takashi said in disgust as he slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand and shook his head.

"I'm not a fry cook you young punk!" One of their former captors said as he tried to rush towards Takashi but was held back by some of his friends.

"I'm a saucier!" The man shrieked, swinging his arms wildly in anger as Takashi rolled his eyes.

"Well just pardon the hell out of me." Takashi retorted sarcastically.

It goes without saying that at this point,Takashi and his friends were now no longer intimidated in the slightest way by any of the Takagi guards, even though all of the men were still very heavily armed.

* * *

"So let me guess, you're the butler, right?" Rei asked Kukugari sarcastically as she pointed at him.

"Actually no, I'm the chauffer." The man said embarrassed as Rei rolled her eyes as well.

"The man your American **"friend"** nearly beat to death over there is the butler." Yoshioka said angrily as he jerked his thumb over at the men carrying the unconscious man that had struck Saeko.

"And **he** was my assistant." Yoshioka said quietly gesturing towards the men struggling against the Infected man Doi who had resumed his violent struggles despite his bonds.

"And what are you?" Takashi asked Yoshioka dryly not sympathetic in the least. "The pool man?"

"I'm the Chief of Security, young man." Yoshioka replied stiffly, not liking the tone of Takashi's voice even though he was also obviously embarrassed at being the leader of a very unorthodox and **very** inept assault team.

* * *

"While my friends were busy making fun of our hired help,…" Saya said quietly." My mother and I were still fighting our own battle right in front of them."

"What happened, Mom?" Saya's other son Kenji asked as he placed his hand on his mother's arm.

Saya smiled as she spoke.

"The Takagi's are not known for their "bubbly" personality, my son." Saya said chuckling.

"Your grandparent's and I all share the same strong-willed personality, and our stubbornness is almost legendary."

"And although I was angry because of what had happened to your "Uncle Jimu" and also for the way my friends and I were being treated as well." Saya said as she gazed into her children's eyes.

"The real truth of the matter was, I was more upset because Mother and Father were not there for me when the Outbreak had started."

"And when Mother showed up without my Father, I took out all of my anger out on her."

"And your grandmother being the proud woman that she is, responded in kind."

"And so we went back and forth like that for a while screaming our heads off at each other, neither one of us backing down because of our stupid pride."

"And so I just stood there yelling at your grandmother because all I saw was the same bossy woman who made my life miserable all the time."

"And all your grandmother saw was the same silly little spoiled girl who was once again acting like a brat."

"And then it got very ugly." Saya said her face becoming downcast.

* * *

"**How DARE you speak to me that way Saya-chan, I'm your MOTHER!"** Yuriko shouted growing frustrated at the increasingly absurd stand-off between all of the adults and the schoolchildren.

"**SOME MOTHER YOU ARE!** Saya spat back.

"**WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN THE PAST THREE DAYS?!** Saya screamed accusingly.

Yuriko hesitated for a moment at Saya angry shout and hung her head, unable to speak as if trying to search for the words that would calm the angry child in front of her.

Her child.

The child she thought she had lost.

The daughter she knew she had failed.

* * *

"WE DIDN'T KNOW WHERE YOU WERE SAYA!" Yuriko said finally her voice full of sorrow as she choked back tears, her daughter's angry words stabbing her in the heart.

"We didn't know." Yuriko said as she tried to keep from crying in the presence of all of their servants and then found herself unable to stop the tears from coming as they ran down her face.

Yuriko gazed upon the angry face of her daughter glaring accusingly at her, and the guilt Yuriko felt at not being there for her child who had been left all alone to fend for herself in a city full of ravenous monsters felt like a knife being twisted in her gut as her emotions began to overwhelm her as Saya's eyes stared angrily at her.

"I'm sorry my child. I came as soon as I found out where you were." Yuriko said as her voice began to break.

"Forgive me Saya." Yuriko said bowing low as tears fell from her face.

* * *

"And even though I had good reason to be upset, I let my anger get the best of me." Saya said as her children noticed the pained expression forming on her face.

"And then I went too far,…."

* * *

"I'll never forgive you or Papa for any of this!" Saya said unmoved by her mother's tears.

"I wish you had never come!" Saya said turning her head away.

"SAYA-SAMA!" Yoshioka roared as he heard Yuriko gasp at Saya's hateful words.

"**WE WERE DOING FINE WITHOUT YOU!"** Saya suddenly screamed as she glared angrily at her mother. **"AND THEN YOU AND YOUR STUPID APES CAME ALONG AND RUINED EVERYTHING!"**

Immediately without thinking, Yuriko stepped up towards Saya, and avoiding the knife in Saya's hand slapped the teenage girl hard across the face as everyone flinched at the sudden assault.

Saya dropped the knife as she reached up and placed her hand on her reddening cheek where she had been struck.

The scowl on Saya's face disappeared as tears began to pour from her eyes and she began to cry pitifully in front of everyone.

* * *

"Before that day, my mother had never hit me before." Saya said sadly as her children reacted in horror at what their grandmother had done.

"It was all my fault actually,…." Saya continued. "At the time I hadn't realized just how horrible it had been for my mother not knowing where I was or what had happened to me the past two days when the Outbreak began."

" And then there was also the guilt she must have felt after seeing Doi-san "turn" when he and everyone else had volunteered to help her rescue me."

"All I could think of was how angry I was at her." Saya said with a sigh as she placed her hand on her cheek, not realizing it.

"And when she hit me, all I could think of was how much I hated her."

"And now that I know better, I've never been able to forgive myself for the awful things I said to my mother that day." Saya said quietly as her children gazed into their mother's sad eyes.

* * *

"Saya-oneechan." Alice said sadly as she looked at the older girl sobbing all alone in front of her mother as Yuriko gasped in shock at what she had just done.

Yuriko looked upon her daughter and immediately regretted losing her temper and slapping Saya as she then quickly tried to console her.

"Saya-chan." Yuriko said, trying to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean,….." She began.

"**YOU DIDN'T MEAN WHAT?!** Saya suddenly screamed as she glared at Yuriko, as Yuriko stepped back in surprise at her daughter's sudden outburst.

"**WHAT DIDN'T YOU MEAN, MOTHER?!** Saya shouted, tears still running down her face as she stepped away from Yuriko her eyes filled with hate as well as tears.

"**YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T MEAN TO LEAVE ME STUCK IN THAT SCHOOL ALL ALONE WHILE PEOPLE WERE BEING KILLED ALL AROUND ME?!"** Saya yelled.

"**OR MAYBE YOU DIDN'T MEAN FOR ME TO ALMOST DIE BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO BUSY HELPING OTHER PEOPLE INSTEAD OF YOUR OWN DAUGHTER!** Saya shouted as her mother cast her gaze downward, tears falling from her eyes at Saya's verbal onslaught.

"SAYA-SAMA!" Yoshioka shouted. "THAT'S ENOUGH!"

"**I WAITED FOR YOU!"** Saya wailed loudly as she started to cry uncontrollably, as Yuriko looked up and stared sadly into her child's face.

"I waited for you and Papa to come rescue me." Saya said softly between sobs.

"I waited for you both and you never came." Saya said looking sadly into her mother's face. "I was so scared and you never came for me Mama."

"And when you didn't come for me, I tagged along with them, looking for you." Saya said pointing to her friends.

"And I would have been dead if not for them." Saya said as she looked into her mother's face again.

"Why didn't you come for me, Mama?" Saya said, as her anger was finally spent and the only emotion left was sadness.

* * *

Tears fell from Yuriko's eyes as she looked upon her daughter sobbing pitifully in front of her.

Many times her heart had been torn at seeing her daughter so distraught, and always it seemed that nothing she ever did would comfort her daughter.

Saya only seemed to find joy and comfort in her father's arms, and Yuriko's heart always yearned to receive even a small portion of the love and adoration that Saya seemed to have reserved only for her father.

Yuriko heart ached for her daughter's love.

And when the Outbreak broke out and it seemed Saya had been one of its many victims, Yuriko had been inconsolable, her heart broken at the loss of her only child.

And when news had finally arrived from her brother, Isoroku, a General with the JSDF that Saya was indeed alive and had been spotted taking shelter nearby, Yuriko had wasted no time gathering volunteers to form a rescue party and attempt a rescue.

And then upon their arrival, things had gone so terribly wrong.

And now the bond between mother and child had been all but completely severed.

Yuriko walked up and placed her arms around Saya as she tightly embraced her daughter who wept bitterly against her bosom.

"I'm so sorry Saya-chan." Yuriko said holding her child tightly.

* * *

Takashi gazed upon Saya and her mother and wished deeply that it wasn't necessary for him to interfere, and that there was time for both mother and daughter to repair the strained relationship between them.

But there **was** no time.

And Takashi cursed the fact that if any of them were to survive, he had to interrupt the two women whose relationship was already so severely strained.

Takashi sighed as he let go of Alice, leaving her in Kouta's care as he then stood up and then began walking towards Yuriko who was still holding Saya as she wept bitterly in her mother's arms.

Ever the vigilant bodyguard, Yoshioka began to step in front of Yuriko to head off Takashi, but stopped when Saya's mother shook her head.

"It's all right, Yoshioka-san. Let him speak." Yuriko said as she looked into the boy's face.

Takashi stepped up in front of Yuriko and gazed down at Saya who was still sobbing for a moment, before speaking.

* * *

"Takagi-dono." Takashi began. "Please forgive me for interrupting at a time like this."

" But I do want to say that I am so very sorry that some of your men have been hurt and one of them has been killed as you were all just trying to rescue all of us, especially your daughter."

"I'm really very sorry for all that has happened." Takashi said bowing low before he continued speaking.

"And with respect, I appreciate the fact that you were only trying to rescue us from a man you perceived as a threat. However, please believe me when I say to you that the man that's lying wounded inside with Busujima-san has in fact, done nothing to harm us in any way, form, or fashion. Nor do I believe he ever meant too, either"

"And despite everything that has happened, my friends and I really are grateful for what you and your men have tried to do for us." Takashi said gesturing towards his friends watching nervously nearby.

"So forgive me for saying this." Takashi continued. "But despite all you and your men have been through I have a favor I wish to ask of you."

* * *

Shocked by the teenage boy's sudden display of humility compared to the vicious contempt and anger he and the rest of his friends had displayed earlier, Yuriko stared closer into the boy's face as he spoke.

"What is it Komuro-san?" She asked curiously.

And once again, Yuriko Takagi was shocked to hear the same words she had heard just a few minutes earlier from the half-naked teenage girl inside the condo, now coming from the young man's mouth as well.

"Takagi-san,I wish for you to take Saya and all my friends away from here to safety." Takashi replied as Saya stopped crying and looked over at him.

"I on the other hand, will be staying here with Busujima-sempai and Jimu-san."

* * *

Yuriko's eyes grew wide at Takashi's words as Saya suddenly released herself from her mother and stared dumbfounded at Takashi as well, her emotional outpouring forgotten.

"**ARE YOU CRAZY?!"** Saya shouted her eyes and face all puffy from crying. **"That's suicide!"**

"TAKASHI, NO!" Rei screamed in shock, dropping her guard which would have left an excellent opening for one of the guards to take advantage of if they had been so inclined.

But like the rest, all of the guards were spellbound at the drama unfolding in front of them and were unsure as to what to do.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS KOMURO!" Shizuka and Kouta shouted. "WE WON'T LEAVE ANYONE BEHIND!"

"ONII-CHANNNN!" Alice wailed unsure of why everyone was yelling at Takashi, but afraid for her "Big Brother" nonetheless.

"ALL OF YOU BE QUIET!" Takashi roared as everyone flinched as if struck by his sudden outburst.

Takashi sighed as he re composed himself and then continued speaking for everyone to hear.

"I am the leader of this group." Takashi said calmly. "And I have made my decision."

* * *

"Takagi-san." Takashi continued looking back into Yuriko's shocked face. "You have your daughter now, and as you can see, she has not been harmed."

"We, on the other hand, were not the main reason you came and therefore, are **not** your first priority, am I correct in my assumption?" Takashi asked looking at her face.

Yuriko's face fell in embarrassment as she responded to the teenager's words with reluctance.

"You are correct, son." Yuriko replied.

"Then there's no reason for any of you to worry about detaining us any longer for our own safety then." Takashi replied matter-of-factly.

"So if you would please take my friends away from here, I would be most grateful." Takashi added as he suddenly turned to leave.

* * *

"WE ARE NOT LEAVING, KOMURO!" Saya yelled standing in front of Takashi, angrier now at the boy than she had been with her mother as he tried to walk around her.

"Takagi, go with your mother." Takashi replied. "This no longer concerns you."

"**The hell it doesn't!"** Saya yelled. "Give me one good reason why we should leave you behind!"

Takashi said nothing as he quietly walked past her.

"**DON'T YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON ME KOMURO!"** Saya screamed angrily as Takashi suddenly halted.

* * *

"I swear, your "Uncle Takashi" could be more stubborn then your "Uncle Jimu" sometimes." Saya said with a huff as she shook her head and her children giggled at her.

"But on that day,…" Saya said as her face softened and a warm smile came upon her face.

"On that day, your "Uncle Takashi" finally realized the reason why your "Uncle Jimu" did all the things he did for us during that horrible time in our lives."

"And I've never forgotten the words that he said next." Saya said as she placed her hands over her heart.

* * *

"**Takashi! Why are you doing this?!"** Rei asked as she gazed teary-eyed at him.

Takashi sighed as he calmly turned to face his friends.

"Rei, do you remember that time when we were standing on the stairs back at school trying to sneak past the Infected in the foyer? Takashi asked.

"Hai." Rei replied, confused as well as frightened.

"Do you also remember asking me why I volunteered to walk out onto the foyer alone to see if we could sneak past "Them"?" He said looking into Rei's face.

"Hai." Rei replied again.

"Do you remember what my answer to your question was?" Takashi asked, his eyes looking as sad as they had been on that day.

"Hai." Rei said as tears fell down her face as she spoke.

"You said, **"I don't know why."** Rei replied.

"**I lied."** Takashi said as he gazed longingly into Rei's eyes.

* * *

"I knew exactly why I was doing it then, and I truly believe that it's the same reason why Jimu-san has done everything he has done for us and continued to risk his life for us all this time." Takashi said as he then stared down at the ground for a moment.

"And it's the same reason Saeko is in there alone with him right now and willing to sacrifice her own life to be with him." Takashi said quietly as he gazed over at the open gates of the condominium.

"And it's also the same reason why I'm going to stay and help Busujima-sempai take care of Jimu-san, even if it means my life." He said hanging his head.

"**What reason is that?!"** Saya asked, crying as she and everyone looked at Takashi as he turned his head and started to walk away from them so they wouldn't see the sadness in his eyes.

"**Because I don't want the ones I love to die."** Saya said, quoting Takashi's words as the eyes of her children started to tear from listening to their mother's story.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I wish to thank all of you that have continued to support me as I continue writing this story. Your kind reviews and support have really encouraged me to keep writing and to continue to strive to make the story better.

As some of you may have noticed, there have been some changes to some of the chapters in my story lately. Part of it was a goof on my part because I was trying to organize my chapters better and just screwed everything up instead.

I did my best to fix everything but I'm sure there's been some confusion, and so I apologize for that.

For those who don't know, I posted a whole bunch of pics of most of the weapons and gear that "Jim" uses in the story that I actually do own on my deviantart page. Just look for my username "Firemanjim and then go to my gallery. There is also a folder there that's titled "Last Alarm" Weapons and equipment on the upper left of my gallery, just click on it. I haven't posted pics of the Mk18 carbine yet, but I will soon.

That way you can actually see what he uses without having to imagine it.

Also, "Last Alarm" up to this point has mostly been a "rough draft" and so now that some time has passed, I've gone back and made some add-ons to the story and corrected some mistakes as well.

As time goes by, I'll keep trying to improve on the earlier chapters that I've written so don't be surprised if you notice any changes.

Since I started posting "Last Alarm" back in February, I've had a ball writing the now more than 25 chapters to this story that I had no idea would grow so big since now it's only day three of a story that was supposed to describe an ordeal that lasts two weeks.

Even I have no clue just how many more chapters it'll take before I'm done.

But I'm having fun still so you won't see me complaining. ^_^

As a matter of fact, it's been interesting trying to keep all the guys at work from knowing exactly what it is that's been keeping me so occupied on my laptop so much at work when there aren't any station assignments or emergency calls going on.

Everyone thinks I'm writing bad things about all the guys I work with which has them acting VERY cautious around me. LOL.

But while it's been fun, it's also been very exhausting turning in a new chapter almost every other week for the past 6 months.

And lately, because summer is here, our call volume goes up, mostly from an increase in brush fires and auto accidents which have really worn all of us out especially with the South Texas heat we have had to endure.

While brush fires here in Texas are not as intense as the forest fires the guys have in California and Arizona, they do take a lot out of you, and because of that it took me a bit longer to write this chapter because we've been so busy lately.

So I'm sorry to keep ya'll waiting so long for the next chapter, and I hope that all of you enjoyed reading it now that I finally finished this portion.

When I started writing this particular chapter, I sort of hit a wall, mostly because trying to come up with a lot of dialogue for so many characters in one chapter is pretty tough for me, not to mention my brain was pretty fried from work and lack of sleep.

Sorry about that.

But to be honest, originally, "Last Alarm" was meant to be a story based on the HOTD series as seen through the eyes of an American Firefighter/Paramedic, turned PMC.

It wasn't meant to be written with everyone else's point of view as well.

Instead, "Last Alarm" has evolved into something else entirely, and even I am amazed at what I've managed to accomplish with it.

Well, actually shocked would be a better word.

I'm no literary expert by any stretch of the imagination, but this has turned out better than I thought.

"Last Alarm" is definitely not a Shakespearean play, but for me being a lowly Firefighter from Texas, it's a huge personal accomplishment.

Not trying to toot my own horn, but for me, this story is like "Forrest Gump" writing "War and Peace." by Leo Tolstoy.

It aint the best story in the world, but considering it really is my first written work since high school, it's a big thing to me.

Anyway, as I started writing this chapter, I was inspired at the last minute to write the story as if Saya and Saeko were telling the story of their adventures during the Outbreak to their own children, many years later.

The reason I was inspired to do this was because of a book I had tried to write years ago that was inspired by an experience also many years ago, when my younger brother and I were driving to an area of San Antonio looking for a shop we had heard about that sold J-pop cd's.

Since we were both very new to anime, we had been scouring all over San Antonio for any anime related books, videos and music that we could find.

Anime was still very much an underground thing back in 1990 so we searched everywhere we could find for the stuff we wanted since any anime stuff was hard to find.

Back then there were few places anywhere in the U.S. that sold anime stuff, so we jumped on any lead we could find.

Anyway, just off IH-35 near Rittiman Road near Fort Sam Houston on San Antonio's East Side we came across an area where mostly Asian- Americans resided.

But since my brother and I are Latino, we kinda caused a bit of a stir apparently from the looks we got as we drove into that quiet neighborhood and walked into the store there.

Everyone was very polite, but we could tell that everyone was watching us closely which was quite understandable.

My brother and I grew up on the East Side of San Antonio ourselves which quite frankly, was a very high crime area back then, so we bought our cd's and left without incident.

The people were very nice though and we didn't fault them for being cautious about us or think anything else about it afterwards.

After leaving there I was inspired to write a story around 1995 or so that never went past the first chapter because I just could not seem to write it out very well, so I threw the paper in the trash and forgot about writing another story until now.

That very first story that I wrote back in 1995 was called "The Kimono."

It was a story about two Japanese sisters now in their late twenties gathering together after many years in their old neighborhood to show their daughters where they had lived as children.

And in the story, both sisters are relating to their daughters how life was for them growing up in a neighborhood made up exclusively of Japanese Americans and their families living near Fort Sam Houston which was the same area my brother and I visited, even though the people that reside in that area are actually Korean and Chinese American.

Anyway, in the story, one day a man moves into the neighborhood across the street from the two girl's house and causes quite a stir in the neighborhood because he is latino, even though in reality, he is not a drug dealer or gang-banger like everyone thinks, but is actually a Paramedic and even helps his neighbors when emergencies arise.

Although in the story, only the two girls are the ones who really befriend him and even mourn his loss when he dies in the line of duty.

The idea was not to write a racially charged story, but to write about a man who was rejected by his own family and neighbors, and was befriended by the two sisters as a "father and daughter-type" relationship forms between the three.

And in truth, "Last Alarm" is very much the same story.

Although hopefully, "Jim" survives in this story as compared to "The Kimono".

I'm still debating about the final outcome.

Unfortunately, back then, I figured that story might be considered offensive, so I scrapped it.

However for this chapter, and to give everyone insight into the HOTD cast's point of view of "Jim" and how he has affected their lives, I decided to write out the rest of "A Child's Love" as if Saya and Saeko and the others are telling the story to their children many years after the Outbreak is over.

"The Kimono" was my inspiration for writing the following chapters this way, so at least some portion of an earlier work of mine will exist in spirit somewhat.

Thanks again for all of your support.


	27. Chapter 26-A Child's Love Part Three

Last Alarm

Chapter Twenty Six

"A Child's Love"

Part Three

* * *

On top of a lone grassy hill located near the bay area of the now mostly desolate City of Tokonosu, one of the surviving members of the infamous "Tokonosu Ten" sat with her young children under the shade of a large sakura tree.

Now a grown woman and mother, Saya sat on a large picnic blanket speaking to her now teenage children who were sitting in a semi-circle around her, listening eagerly to every detail of their mother's tale of the horror that she and her friends had experienced while running for their lives from "The Infected" during the beginning days of "The Outbreak".

And as Saya told her incredible tale, she had come to a point in her story where she was now describing to her children about the heroic stand that she and her friends had taken against their grandmother and her bodyguards so many years ago when their mother was but a mere child herself.

An extremely bold stand by a group of teenage children against Saya's mother and several armed guards out in the middle of a desolate street in front of Rika Minami's condo where Saya and her friends had taken shelter for the night, on what was now the morning of the third day of "The Outbreak".

And as their mother described the terror she and her friends had felt at being captured by the guards and the fury that she had vented at their grandmother, the emotional rollercoaster the children were all experiencing as their mother spoke then hit another emotional turn as they began to feel sorrow at the image of their mother crying in the street after being struck by their grandmother in the heat of anger.

And as their mother spoke, Saya's children could plainly see the turmoil that was still visible in their mother's eyes over that heartbreaking incident so long ago; that they could all plainly see still greatly affected their mother even now.

And as Saya continued her tale, she then described to her mesmerized children how a huge horde of Infected were quickly approaching the small group of adults and children while their "Uncle Takashi," trying to save the lives of his friends, had shown exceptional humility after all that he and his friends had been made to suffer at the hands of Yuriko Takagi's bodyguards, and in front of everyone begged Saya's mother to take Saya and his remaining friends to safety.

And to the horror of his friends, Takashi had then made the seemingly insane decision to stay behind with Saeko and the injured American mercenary, who still remained inside the ruined condo, both of them completely defenseless.

Completely dumbfounded by the teenage boy's suicidal decision, Yuriko, as well as everyone else that was standing out in the middle of the street both child and adult, stared in complete astonishment as the young teen then began to slowly walk towards the open gates leading into the complex, knowing that the boy was condemning himself to certain death, but still determined nonetheless to remain behind with his helpless friends no matter the outcome.

Safety for everyone was merely a few feet away towards the awaiting vehicles that were ready to whisk them all away from what was already becoming a killing ground, which was evident from the loud screams of the helpless victims trapped in their homes at the end of the street who were being overrun by the large crowd of Infected approaching.

Food, shelter, safety and the best opportunity possible of finding their parents and surviving their horrible ordeal was just within their reach.

"And yet despite all that, you're "Uncle Takashi" stood by his decision to stay behind and protect your "Aunt Saeko" and "Uncle Jimu" if he could, while he left the rest of us in the care of my mother." Saya said as her children were held spellbound by their mother's description of the events of that day.

"Whooooaa, "Uncle Takashi" was very brave, huh, Mama?' Reiko said, breaking the awed silence of everyone around.

"Hai, he was very courageous, Reiko-chan." Saya replied as she frowned slightly at her children's palpable admiration for their "uncle", and his heroic act.

"Baka." Saya thought to herself in disgust.

* * *

While Takashi's act had indeed been brave and his intentions noble, Takashi's decision to stay behind on that day still pissed off Saya, even now.

"I don't know what ideas Jimu put in that boy's head at the time, but I so wanted to walk up and slap them out of there if Rei hadn't beaten me to the punch first." Saya thought to herself.

"Hai, your "Uncle Takashi" has always been a very brave man." A gentle voice said suddenly, snapping Saya out of her angry thoughts and startling her children who turned to see who it was that was speaking from behind them.

Saya smiled happily at the two figures that she had watched stealthily walking up the hill towards where she and her children were sitting, purposefully saying nothing to her children about the pair's arrival so as not to ruin the surprise.

And as the kids all quickly turned around at the sound of the familiar voice, they all finally noticed for the first time the two figures standing silently behind them as surprise turned into joy.

And as one, they all shouted with delight at the two figures that had so stealthily snuck up on them.

Reiko of course, was extremely overjoyed at the sudden presence of one of the new arrivals.

"Saeko-obachan!" Reiko squealed in delight, as she and the rest of Saya's children all jumped up to hug their "Aunt Saeko" as well as Saeko's daughter, their "cousin" Oyuki, , who had just arrived.

* * *

Saya smiled as her children immediately pounced upon her old friend Saeko and her daughter, smothering them both with hugs and kisses as she gazed fondly upon her closest and dearest friend who, along with her daughter Oyuki, was almost practically knocked over as they were both being smothered by Saya's children.

The years had certainly been kind to all of the women of the infamous "Tokonosu Ten" that had walked out under heavy fire on that abandoned bridge so many years ago.

Of course, being only in their early thirties, the once teenage survivors of "The Outbreak" could hardly be called "old" in the first place.

But of all of them, Saeko's beauty had definitely seemed to improve with time, as Saya looked closely upon the beautiful ebony-eyed, raven-haired, extremely voluptuous woman who was the envy of all of the other female survivors, even though none of them would ever admit to it.

No longer the tall, skinny girl with the bangs that she had once been as a teenager, Saeko had matured into a ravishing beauty that made her the object of every man's desire that ever gazed upon her, as well as becoming the envy of every woman who ever caught her husband or boyfriend staring at her, wherever she went.

But unlike most people, Saya knew that behind her beautiful face, gorgeous body, and gentle smile lay the heart of a fearsome warrior who feared no enemy and showed no mercy if provoked.

However, to the children of Rei, Shizuka, and Saya, the quiet, gentle, yet deadly warrior, was just "Saeko-obachan", who always had nothing but warm smiles and equally warm hugs for all of her friends, and their children.

While Saeko was busily dealing with the smothering hugs of Saya's children, Saya walked over and hugged her favorite "niece," as Oyuki warmly embraced her "Aunt Saya" back.

* * *

"Saya-obachan, ohayo." Oyuki said shyly as she embraced Saya.

"Oyuki-chan, ohayo." Saya replied as she smoothed her "niece's" long hair with her fingers.

"Oyuki-chan, you're getting so tall, and so pretty, child." Saya said as she held Oyuki in her arms once again hugging her tightly as she then kissed the teenager on the top of her head and then squeezed her even tighter as Saya began to feel Oyuki beginning to struggle against her.

"Oba-chan, I can't breathe." Saya heard Oyuki say in a muffled voice as she then quickly released her "niece" as the girl stepped back and gasped for air.

"Gomen nasai, Oyuki-chan." Saya said apologetically.

"I was just so happy to see you." Saya said as she reached over to see if the young, coughing, girl was okay.

Hearing the commotion, Saya's children turned their attention back to their mother and stood staring at the sight of their mother fussing over Oyuki, all of them slightly envious at their mother for being so affectionate with their "cousin."

To all of the other offspring of the "Tokonosu Ten", it was always the same old story with **all** of the "Tokonosu Ten" adults, especially the women, whenever Saeko's daughter Oyuki, made an appearance.

It seemed that all of the adults, the men included, just could not help themselves but smother their teenage "cousin" with hugs and kisses every time they saw her, much to the growing envy of all the other children who constantly wondered what it was about the young girl that caused such an overflow of affection to be placed on her.

None of the other offspring of the infamous "Tokonosu Ten" could understand what it was that made their parents want to shower the shy teenager with so much affection every time they saw her, and in jealous spite, they couldn't wait for an opportunity to tease her about being everyone's favorite "pet".

Unlike her jealous "cousins" though, Oyuki knew exactly the reasons why all of her "Aunt's" and "Uncles" were so affectionate towards her, and because of that and the fact that she was older than all the rest of the children and had proven herself to be much more mature than the rest, she took the relatively harmless teasing from her "cousins" in stride.

Until they went too far that is. Which whenever the children were ever together in one place for any given length of time, was never very long in coming.

And today was going to be no exception, either.

* * *

As the young girl gasped for breath, Saya gazed lovingly upon her young "niece", who by all appearances was almost the mirror image of her mother in almost every way.

"Personality included," Saya thought, as she watched Reiko already joining her brothers in teasing her older "cousin" as Oyuki bashfully smiled and played off her younger cousin's constant teasing the same as Saeko would do before she would get angry and then terrify everyone with her unbridled fury.

"Strange how she resembles Saeko so closely in every way." Saya thought as she gazed upon mother and daughter happily greeting her children.

"Especially since she's really,…" Saya had been thinking to herself, as her thoughts were interrupted by Saeko walking over to her, a little out of breath from the multiple hugs of Saya's children as she then stepped up and warmly embraced Saya.

"Saya-chan, hisashiburi da, ne?" Saeko said softly as she warmly embraced Saya and then stepped back slightly so that she stood in front of Saya, still holding her hands in warm greeting.

"Hai, it's been too long Saeko-chan." Saya agreed as she looked into the smiling face of the woman she had come to regard as her "sister" and not just as her very best friend in the whole world.

"Not a wrinkle, bulge, grey hair, or blemish of any kind on her at all, dammit." Saya said slightly envious.

Even "sisters" love to critique each other at times.

* * *

Noticing that her children were already misbehaving, Saya then gazed annoyingly upon her youngest children, the twins Kenji and Reiko, who was already sticking their tongues out at Oyuki, barely five minutes after their arrival.

"Kenji and Reiko-chan!" Saya snapped disapprovingly as she scolded her children. "Quit teasing your "cousin." She just got here and already you're picking on her like little children! Behave yourselves!"

"Awwww Mom, we're just playing." Kenji replied as the two most notoriously delinquent of Saya's children whined in response to their Mother's scolding. "We weren't trying to be mean."

"It's all right Oba-chan." Oyuki said as she smiled at her two "cousins," mischievously.

"They **are** just little kids after all." Oyuki said, as Reiko and Kenji glared at her as she giggled at their response to her obvious insult at their age.

"Besides, I have some new taijutsu moves I want to show all of them." Oyuki said, smiling innocently as the rest of Saya's children suddenly stopped talking and froze.

Saya chuckled despite herself, knowing full well what **that** meant.

Saeko's prowess with a sword was unmatched and legendary among her students that trained in her martial arts dojos around the world.

Her daughter Oyuki however, was not quite as "gifted" as her mother in kenjutsu yet.

But in hand-to-hand combat however, Oyuki truly excelled much to the chagrin of her "cousins", who after being guilty of teasing her too much would always find themselves returning to their parents sporting new injuries and in need of new clothes to replace the ones torn from their "roughhousing" afterwards.

But despite all the bumps and bruises and damaged egos, Saya, Rei's and Shizuka's children never ceased their constant teasing of their older "cousin", nor did they ever stop trying to beat Oyuki at every given opportunity.

* * *

On the surface, Oyuki, like her mother, was a very sweet, kind, and gentle person, always friendly and always smiling politely in the presence of others.

But in reality much like her mother, the young girl was actually a very solitary figure, seldom interacting with other teenagers her age unless she was hanging around with her "cousins".

But even as happy and playful as she was around her younger "cousins", even they could be very bratty to her sometimes.

And Oyuki's first line of defense against their verbal bullying had always been to give her "cousins" "The Look."

As shy and sweet as Oyuki was, Saya would laugh whenever she saw that same steely look in her eyes when she got mad that Saeko had so often used to frighten her own enemies with so many times before in the past.

It was the same look Saeko had used whenever she grew annoyed with someone, and had obviously been copied by her daughter who used it also with much success to intimidate others, as in this case her "cousins", who often teased her too much and which would normally result in Saya's children quickly behaving themselves,…..usually.

It amused Saya to no end in the past when her children were much younger how they would freak out when Oyuki would look at them that way even though they probably deserved it as much as they liked to tease her, as Saeko would then chastise Oyuki for being so "mean" to her "cousins."

Saya remembered that very same look that had been cast towards her so many years ago on that second day of "The Outbreak" by Saeko, and it made her laugh to see the way that the offspring of the "Tokonosu Ten" would interact with each other that was so very similar to the way she and her friends had acted as well when they were younger.

"She is definitely her mother's child." Saya thought smiling as she spied the young girl giving the twins "The Look" as Reiko and Kenji rolled their eyes at her in response.

"So much like us." Saya thought as she gazed fondly upon the children, remembering the time that she and her friends had been just as dysfunctional.

While Oyuki's icy stare had been enough to keep everyone's children in check in the past, it was beginning to seem that most of them, especially Kenji and Reiko, had become less and less intimidated by "The Look", as they grew older.

And as a result, Oyuki had been forced to use "alternative" methods recently in defense of her "cousins" persistent teasing.

And the "alternative methods" that Oyuki had decided to use to get back at her "cousins" would have given any other mother a heart attack.

* * *

Saya however, was unphased by the teenage "roughhousing" that ensued when the inevitable teasing occurred whenever the families ever gathered together. And despite her husband's frightened protests, Saya allowed the rough "play" to go on despite the many bumps and bruises that were always inflicted on her children.

"If they're whining about getting beat up because they couldn't keep their mouths shut, then they just have to learn how to do a better job of defending themselves." Saya would say as her husband would freak out at the sight of their children being tossed in the air like rag dolls.

In truth, it was a good way for her children to practice learning how to defend themselves since all of the offspring of the "Tokonosu Ten" were all enrolled in Saeko's dojo anyway, all of them learning the art of self-defense under the watchful eye of their "Aunt Saeko."

Of course, being constantly tossed to the mat by their seemingly undefeatable "cousin" every time in class did little to decrease the feelings of jealousy and rivalry among the children, and as was usual, an inevitable bout of "extreme roughhousing" was sure to develop every time the families would gather together.

"But still, it was a good way for all of them to "blow off a little steam", Saya thought to herself, as well as for teaching her children a little lesson in humility for constantly teasing Oyuki, something Saya truly did not approve of either for that matter.

Although recently, Saya had to admit, as the children grew bigger and stronger, the roughhousing was beginning to get a little too "rough" lately, a fact Saya, Rei, and Shizuka had brought to Saeko's attention before.

A fact that they should have left well enough alone seeing as how Saeko was the children's "Sensei" and her daughter was their "sempai."

It was like a mother asking a Marine Drill Sergeant to be gentle on their "baby" during Boot Camp.

It's just something you should never do if you ever wish to see your child alive again.

* * *

"Oyuki-chan, don't be too rough this time." Saeko sternly warned her daughter even though by now, Saya already knew what she **really** meant by that, as she rolled her eyes in response to Saeko's words.

Saeko's so-called "motherly warning" was really her cue for her daughter to hand her spoiled, jealous, petty, and frequently delinquent "cousins," ass's right back to them.

"Like mother, like daughter." Saya sighed, as she turned her head to talk to Saeko and listened to the sound of her son Kenji yelling as he was sent flying through the air after being thrown by his older "cousin."

"Mama?" Saya heard Reiko say.

Saya turned her head back around at the sound of her youngest daughter's voice and saw Reiko looking directly at her, eyes wide with fear, as Saya shook her head at her.

"You both started it." Saya said in a scolding tone.

"You're on your own kiddo." Saya said as she turned away and then heard Reiko scream as her daughter was then hurled through the air to land on her brother who grunted loudly as his sister fell on top of him.

Saeko was looking at Oyuki with an amused smile as **all** of Saya's children then began taking turns trying to overpower her daughter.

With each attempt ending with the same result as it always did, with one of Saya's children yelling as they flew through the air and the dull thud of the impact that followed as they hit the ground.

* * *

"They've gotten so big." Saeko said out loud, as Saya heard Midori scream as she too, was flipped onto the ground with a thud.

"So has Oyuki-chan." Saya said as she watched Midori get up off the ground and with the help of her brother Ryuunosuke, then surrounded Oyuki on both sides and quickly grabbed each of her arms, rendering her helpless.

Or so they thought, as the girl grinned broadly and without any visible effort, twisted her body pulling her arms inwards so that both siblings were knocked off balance and crashed into each other, butting heads painfully, as Oyuki then twisted her body again, pulling on their arms in a smoothly executed _ninpo taijutsu_ throw as the two siblings then fell to the ground with a crash.

"That move seems somewhat familiar." Saya said nonchalantly, as she watched her two children rubbing their heads and scowling at Oyuki who grinned evilly at them, having not even broken a sweat yet in her tussle with her "cousins."

"Hai, it was a _Ninpo taijutsu_ throw that Jimu used when he was involved in that fight back at the Junior High School where Komuro-kun's mother worked, remember?" Saeko replied as she and Saya watched their children at "play."

"But don't worry, Saya-chan." Saeko said soothingly. "I did warn Oyuki not to be too rough."

"Ummm, arigato." Saya gulped as she suddenly remembered the outcome of that particularly nasty fight the day before the mass evacuation of the over 300 refugees seeking shelter in that school.

Saya's anxiety level began to rise at the thought that Oyuki had been taught those same skills that the American had used back then against the very same street gang that had terrorized them alongside the road near the bridge, and had somehow found their way to the Junior High School where they had found Takashi's mother and Rei's father.

Skills that had ended in the gruesome deaths of that entire gang as everyone watched frozen in shock at the brutality of the fight.

* * *

"**OH SHIT**, Saeko taught Oyuki to fight like **that**?" Saya thought to herself in horror as she tried to keep from freaking out at the sight of her children being used as "test dummies" on Oyuki's newly acquired skills.

And for once, Saya **really** wished she had stopped the roughhousing before it began.

While the children had always walked away after "roughhousing" with their "cousin" with multiple bumps, bruises and torn clothing in the past, Saya had never been worried about her children receiving any serious injuries due to the level of trust she had in Saeko to prevent her daughter from letting things get out of hand.

Today however, was a different story as Saya found herself actually growing nervous as her children and her beloved "niece" Oyuki went head-to-head.

"I thought Jimu was just joking when he said that he was a practitioner of Togakure-Ryu Ninpo." Saeko said as Saya's children picked themselves up off the ground and glared at Oyuki .

"But when we saw him in that fight with the street gang at Komuro-Sensei's school, I realized he was actually serious." Saeko added, as Saya winced after watching her son Kenji being caught in some sort of arm lock and then being sent spinning to the ground, slamming hard against his sister Reiko.

"And then when I described the fight to Oyuki-chan." Saeko continued, totally oblivious to the flying children falling in front of her and Saya as she continued speaking.

"She pestered me constantly for **months**, for me to teach her the same techniques he had used." Saeko said as Midori screamed in rage and then charged towards Oyuki swinging her right fist at her "cousin's" face.

"I'm sure she did." Saya replied, her voice a few octaves higher than normal as Midori closed the distance between her and her "cousin" rapidly.

"Hai, she was very persistent, and at first I was quite hesitant to adopt any _ninpo_ techniques in her training." Saeko continued as Midori suddenly found herself caught in a wrist lock and was then flipped into the air, crashing into Reiko and Kenji and knocking her siblings off their feet as they had been trying to pick themselves off of the ground.

"But after remembering just how effective his techniques were." Saeko continued. "I taught them to Oyuki-chan as well, to honor him, and the warrior art he admired."

"Oh,….I'm sure he's** quite** honored to know that you taught your teenage daughter the fighting skills of Japan's most notorious group of **assassins**." Saya said with noticeable sarcasm in her voice as she breathed a sigh of relief as her children, albeit a little wobbly, got back up on their feet.

"Shadow Warriors, actually." Saeko corrected Saya with a satisfied smile not noticing the sarcasm in Saya's voice as Saya rolled her eyes in irritation.

"The historical ninja were actually more like intelligence agents, than assassins." Saeko said as Saya gritted her teeth.

"**Yeah, incredibly LETHAL intelligence agents."** Saya said **very **sarcastically, biting her lip to keep from screaming at Saeko.

"Very much so."Saeko agreed, seemingly oblivious to Saya's sarcasm, or just ignoring it as she continued to watch the children calmly as if everyone was practicing in her dojo instead of enjoying a simple gathering at the park.

"And as you can see, her taijutsu skills have greatly improved." Saeko said, her voice filled with motherly pride as she watched Oyuki readying herself for the next attack by Saya's children, by assuming an _ichimonji no kamae_ posture.

"So, neh." Saya nervously responded as she watched her children trying once more to overwhelm their "cousin" by rushing her all at once, as Saya then winced again at the sight of her children flying in all directions.

Saya sighed and then turned her attention away from the hapless plight of her children as she then gazed upon the face of her best friend and saw the troubled look in her eyes that she had not noticed before.

* * *

"Saeko-chan?" Saya asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"Hai, I'm fine Saya-chan." Saeko said softly, the tone of her voice betraying the fact that everything was **not** all right with her at all.

Already knowing what was really bothering her childhood friend, Saya looked directly into Saeko's face and asked the question she already knew the answer to, but decided to ask Saeko anyway.

"Are you nervous about seeing him after so long?" She asked Saeko quietly as she reached over and grasped Saeko's hand and gently squeezed it.

Saeko didn't answer her at first as she continued watching the children at their "rough and tumble play" quietly.

"Actually, I'm scared to death." Saeko replied finally as Saya reached over and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"It's been a long time since he returned to Texas, neh?" Saya said as she looked into the sad eyes of her old friend.

"Hai." Saeko replied. "Almost 5 years now since his last visit."

"Has he been in contact with you at all since he left, Saeko-chan?" Saya asked.

"Hai, he has called me a few times since he left." Saeko admitted as Saya could see the sadness becoming more visible on Saeko's face.

"Most of the time he called to see how Oyuki-chan and I were doing, and also to ask about all of you." Saeko said as she looked into Saya's face sadly.

"But he has never spoken very much, and his calls have become less and less frequent the past three years." Saeko said as a tear ran down her cheek.

"I guess it's just been too hard for him to cope with everything that happened." Saeko said as she then stared at the ground.

"And I guess the sound of my voice is also a constant reminder of,….." Saeko said as she turned her head so the children wouldn't notice her crying.

"Saeko-chan, I'm sure that's not it." Saya said placing her hand on Saeko's shoulder, trying to comfort her friend as the sound of another of Saya's children being thrown to the ground suddenly caused Saeko to titter, and then as another loud yell of frustration rent the air followed by a loud thud, both women then begin laughing despite themselves.

And after a few moments, Saeko managed to compose herself and then cast a smile at Saya, assuring her that she was all right.

* * *

"So, I'm assuming that they're still at the airport then?" Saeko asked, trying to change the subject slightly.

"Hai, Andrew, J.R., Matt, and Kouta went to go pick "him" up at the airport, but that was before they found out his flight had been delayed by about two hours in Hawaii." Saya replied with a frown, as Saeko's shoulders dropped in disappointment.

"Kouta just called me back a little while ago and said the plane was still at least an hour out, and it would also be at least two more hours after it touches down before they actually arrived here." Saya said as she then looked at Saeko, a worried expression on her face.

"Saeko," Saya began, speaking softly and trying to find the right words to use so as not to upset her friend any further.

"Nani?" Saeko replied as she looked at Saya and saw the troubled look on her face.

"Saya-chan, what is it?" Saeko asked the concern on her face clearly visible. "Is everything all right?"

"Well, I just wanted to let you know Saeko-chan,….." Saya said hesitating for a moment before she continued.

"I've been telling my children the story of what happened to us during The Outbreak." Saya said as Saeko's eyes widened.

"Oh, I see." Saeko said under her breath as Saya detected the anxiety in her voice.

"It was time, Saeko." Saya said almost apologetically as she watched her friend turn her head away to watch the children wearily attempt to rush Oyuki again.

"I wanted to wait until they were older, but Kouta and I agreed that this time when we all came here, they would all know about what really happened finally." Saya said as she looked sadly at the quiet figure of her friend.

"I understand." Saeko replied softly, the tone of her voice causing Saya's heart to ache.

"Have you told Oyuki-chan about what happened,yet?" Saya asked gently as she looked closely into Saeko's face.

Saeko closed her eyes for a moment as if in deep thought before she answered.

"Hai." Saeko replied. "Last year."

"I told her everything except for what happened at the bridge." Saeko said as she looked into Saya's eyes.

"I-I just couldn't." Saeko said looking towards Oyuki who was readying herself for another attack by Midori.

"And I also didn't tell her about Asami-chan either." Saeko said, turning her head so as not to face Saya.

Saya sucked in her breath at the mention of the young police officer's name and Saeko immediately regretted mentioning it, as Saya then reached over and grasped Saeko's hands and gave her hands a gentle squeeze.

"Thank you." Saya said gratefully as she watched all of the children lying on the ground breathing hard, including Oyuki, who had obviously been bested by Midori, finally.

Saeko didn't answer her, as she frowned at the sight of her daughter lying on the ground and holding her stomach, as Saeko's thoughts were now focused on her daughter's obvious defeat.

* * *

"She got over-confident and dropped her guard again." Saeko thought, as she sighed loudly. "I'm going to have to punish her severely for that."

"What time were the others going to arrive?" Saeko asked Saya suddenly, trying to change the obviously still very painful subject.

"They all said they'd try to get here before lunchtime, before "he" arrived." Saya replied as she looked away and smiled to herself at seeing Oyuki having finally been defeated by one of her children, as well as secretly relieved that none of them had been seriously hurt either.

While some people will initiate a little "friendly competition" amongst their close friends or even their siblings by boasting about their children's achievements to incite a little "harmless jealousy" amongst each other.

When it came to Saya and Saeko however, they took "sibling rivalry" to a whole new level.

"Of course, now that his flight has been delayed, we'll have to start lunch without them." Saya said with disappointment.

"Well, at least we can all still have dinner together once they arrive." Saeko replied as she looked at her watch.

"It's only 11:00 now." Saeko said as she looked back at Saya. "What do you want to do?"

Saya hesitated a moment before she answered, knowing full well that Saeko was not going to be happy with what she was about to say.

"Well now that the kids have worn themselves out, I guess we can gather them together and I can finish my story to them." Saya said quietly as she noticed Saeko tense up, her unease over the subject returning.

Saya noticed Saeko frowning slightly as she looked upon the children who were now getting up off the ground and brushing themselves off as they started to all walk back to join their mothers.

"I can always tell them about it some other time, Saeko-chan." Saya said as she placed her hand on Saeko's shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze.

Saeko looked into Saya's eyes and then sighed as she looked back towards the children as they began to approach.

"No." Saeko said as she closed her eyes as if in deep thought before she opened her eyes and continued speaking.

"You're right. It is time that they all knew,…..about everything." Saeko said as the children walked over, staring nervously at the serious looks upon their mother's faces.

Especially Oyuki, who knew she was now in trouble as her mother cast a frosty look her way as she walked up the hill in defeat.

* * *

Oyuki knew that she was going to get it from her mother for being too over-confident and dropping her guard which had resulted in her being sucker-punched by her "cousin" Midori in the gut, knocking the wind **and** the fight, right out of her.

It had been an amateurish move, one that someone of Oyuki's skill level shouldn't have missed being the gifted expert taijutsu practitioner that she was.

Yet, she had failed to see it and to block it, and once she had been struck, she had fallen to the ground like a sack of potatoes from the blow.

And while the soreness in her gut and the damage to her pride was painful enough as it was, it was the look on her mother's face that really made Oyuki shiver, knowing full well that severe punishment was to come for her screw-up.

Saeko was no cruel tyrant. In truth, she was a very warm, and caring mother, who loved her daughter dearly as everyone knew, and the loving bond between mother and daughter could not have been stronger.

However, as the Master of her father's dojo's of which Oyuki was her star pupil, Saeko was a **very** strict disciplinarian when it came to combat training as her students could attest to, a trait she had inherited from her father, Busujima, Hiroyuki.

And as the daughter of Saeko Busujima, a renowned master of kenjutsu and also being her number one student as well, Oyuki realized her actions also reflected on her mother's reputation as well as the reputation of her mother's school.

And therefore, whenever it came to using her combat skills, anything less than absolute perfection, even while at play with her "cousins" was not good enough, in her mother's point of view.

And any failure on Oyuki's part was met with strict penalties, more so than the rest of her mother's students, as Oyuki lowered her eyes so as not to look upon the frosty glare her mother gave her as she walked towards her.

And as if to reinforce Oyuki's worries of how displeased her mother was with her, Oyuki let out a loud yelp as her mother reached over and slapped her bottom in irritation as she walked past.

* * *

Saya turned her head so that Saeko couldn't see the broad grin splitting her face in two as she winked at Midori walking past, secretly proud of her daughter for her," less than honorable", but still victorious defeat of her "cousin".

Saya then gathered her children around her, making a big show of scolding them for being so mean to Oyuki, as the group then walked towards the large sakura tree once again, and then settled down over the blanket that they had all been sitting on earlier.

"Saya-chan?" Saya heard Saeko say quietly as she saw Oyuki sit next to Reiko, giving Midori the stink-eye, knowing that a re-match was sure to be coming in the near future.

"Would you mind if Oyuki-chan and I sit in and listen as well?" Saeko said, her voice a little shaky.

Saya looked at Saeko and could see the growing unease in her eyes.

"Are you sure, Saeko-chan?" Saya said quietly so the children wouldn't hear. "I know how difficult it is for you."

"It's alright." Saeko replied as she gazed upon the children sitting on the ground staring at them intently waiting for the two women to come over and sit with them so they could hear the rest of the story.

"As you said earlier, they need to know." Saeko replied.

"You're absolutely sure?" Saya asked again, still feeling unsure as to whether to continue the story of what Saya knew was an especially traumatic point in Saeko's life.

"Hai, please go ahead." Saeko said after a moment's hesitation as she walked past her and sat on the blanket next to her daughter and then looked over at Saya and smiled.

"All right, if you insist." Saya said as she walked over and sat down on the blanket in front of everyone as all eyes turned attentively towards her.

* * *

"Now where was I?" Saya said frowning, having forgotten her place after having been distracted by the arrival of Saeko and her daughter.

"Uncle Takashi was walking through the gates to go help Mama and "Uncle Jimu." Oyuki replied, intentionally interrupting everyone before any of them could answer as all of Saya's children then turned their heads to face Oyuki and frowned at her in irritation, all of them still very sore at her.

"Oh, yes, thank you Oyuki-chan." Saya said gratefully, as her youngest son Kenji rolled his eyes.

"Teacher's pet." Kenji mumbled under his breath, earning him a smack on the back of his head from his mother.

"KENJI-CHAN! That is enough!" Saya said sternly as everyone giggled as the boy rubbed the sore spot on his head.

"Now where was I? Saya said frowning in annoyance at her youngest son.

"Oh yes," Saya continued as everyone listened intently. "Your Uncle Takashi had volunteered to stay with your Aunt Saeko and help her take care of your "Uncle Jimu" who was lying hurt in your "Aunt Rika's" condo while the rest of us made our getaway…."

"The problem was," Saya added, lowering her voice for dramatic effect.

"About half of the city's population at that time was Infected, and it seemed to all of us that they had all decided to come down that particular street at the same time." Saya said as the children's eyes widened at the image of almost an entire city of blood-thirsty monsters were coming for their parents.

"And as they came, we could also hear the sounds of people screaming in their houses as the Infected burst into every house on the way." Saya said as all the children shuddered at the image of people dying horribly just down the street from where their future parents were standing.

"Wow Mom, I can't believe Takashi-ojichan wanted to do that with all that going on as well." Her daughter Reiko said in awe. "I mean, I know he loved everyone a lot, but why would he want to stay even though he knew he might die?"

"Yeah Mom, what happened next?" Her son Kenji asked, as everyone was spellbound on Saya's every word, the image of their "Uncle" walking all alone to stay behind and possibly die with his friends on everyone's mind.

Saya glanced over at Saeko who merely nodded her head encouraging Saya to answer, as Saya took a deep breath and prepared herself to continue on with her story despite her reservations of how the next part of her tale would affect her old friend.

* * *

"Love makes people do strange and often times amazing things sometimes, children." Saya began as she looked upon their faces. "And the love we had for each other that was beginning to grow within all of us, just made us stronger. "

"And things that we would have never believed we were capable of doing before, we began to do."

"Yeah Mom, but still, that's kind of crazy don't you think?" Midori asked, trying to fathom the reasons for her "Uncle's" seemingly insane decision.

"Especially since you have to admit Mom, Takashi-ojisan really was just a **kid** at the time too." Midori added trying to sound grown-up, as Saya and the rest of the children rolled their eyes, the irony of her own words obviously lost on Midori who was only fourteen years old herself, two years younger than Takashi had been.

"Dork." Reiko said under her breath, as she frowned at her big sister in annoyance.

"At the time, I thought what he was doing was crazy myself, I have to admit." Saya agreed as she glanced towards Saeko.

"But remember kids, many young people that were Takashi's age and even younger than him have sacrificed their lives for their families, and for their friends before." Saya continued.

"And I'm sure, each one of them was extremely frightened, and did not want to die either."

"But sometimes when the lives of others are at risk, especially ones we care about, and when all other options are no longer available, a certain few have put their own fears aside, and their own desire to live, and have taken a stand for the lives and safety of others when no one else could,….or would." Saya said as she bit her lip at her own words.

"And on that day, even in the face of certain death, your "Uncle Takashi" made his decision to stay behind and if need be, sacrifice his life as well." Saya said as her children's admiration for their "Uncle" soared and Saya's irritation at Takashi did as well.

"Baka." Saya thought with mild bitterness at the memory.

* * *

Takashi, family name Komuro, a young boy of age sixteen whose only concern two days earlier at the beginning of "The Outbreak" was a young girl he had loved who had betrayed his love for the affections of another, who had also been his best friend.

A friend whom he had looked upon as a brother, and whose life he had to snuff out to keep him from becoming the very same monster that had condemned him to death the very moment Hisashi had been bitten.

Few teenagers would have the strength to endure what Takashi had experienced in the past three days and remained sane afterwards.

And now Takashi was even going a step further, and putting his own young life at risk for the sake of his friends.

Komuro, Takashi. Age sixteen.

A teenager and former high school student.

Komuro Takashi, now a boy no longer but a man choosing to stay behind and face an unknown destiny with two of his companions, alone.

However, at a time when many have thought themselves alone, the love and strength of their friends has shown them that they are indeed,… not alone at all.

* * *

"To be honest, I wanted to slap your "Uncle Takashi" silly when he started turned his back on me and started spouting off about how he "didn't want the ones he loved to die", while the rest of us were supposed to go with my mother without question." Saya told her children with an angry scowl on her face.

"But then your "Aunt Rei," beat me to it." Saya said with a quick smile trying to hide her anger at what happened next as everyone giggled at the look on her face.

Fortunately for Takashi, the sight of the young man courageously walking towards his doom had been too much for one of their group to bear, as Rei suddenly screamed his name and ran up to him.

"**TAKASHI!"** Rei screamed as she closed her knife and slipped it into a pocket of her skirt, and then ran up to him, grabbing him by the arm and spinning him violently around.

Takashi was startled by Rei grabbing his arm and forcefully spinning him around to face her, as he then gazed upon the tear-filled eyes of his childhood friend.

The love of his life.

The one who had betrayed him.

And yet, the one who his heart still yearned deeply for.

The one that even now, he was willing to die for, just so that she would go on living.

"Rei." Takashi began, in a last ditch effort to try to convince Rei to leave with Yuriko and her entourage as Rei stared deeply into his eyes.

And then without any warning, slapped him hard across the face.

* * *

Takashi stumbled and nearly fell back from the force of the blow as he rubbed his cheek and stared in shock into Rei's face as she glared angrily at him, tears running down her cheeks.

"**If you think you're going to stay here and play hero while the rest of us sneak away to safety, you are out of your mind, Takashi!"** Rei yelled as she suddenly reached up and placed her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply, to everyone's utter surprise.

Takashi was too stunned to react as Rei kissed him long and deep and then parting her lips from his, she then lay her head on his chest and held him tightly as Takashi tried to catch his breath, still in shock at Rei's sudden boldness .

"**I'm not leaving your side ever, you BAKA!"** Rei said crying as everyone stared at the young couple.

* * *

Saeko smiled despite herself as she saw the flash of anger in Saya's eyes as she related to the children what had happened, knowing that what Rei had done back then to Takashi was still a very bitter subject with Saya.

"I wanted to tear the hair off the head of that self-centered skank, after what she did." Saya thought to herself angrily as she scowled even deeper at the memory of Rei kissing Takashi so boldly in front of her and everyone else.

To everyone standing around watching, the kiss and the words of endearment Rei had so boldly displayed seemed to be merely another example of typical teenage love and storybook romance that quite frankly, could have been saved for a more appropriate time when impending death was not a mere stone's throw away and coming fast.

But to some people, the open display of affection was also a deliberate message for any potential rivals to "back-off, he's mine!", that the men standing around gawking were completely unaware of.

Everyone that is, except for Saya, who looked like she was about to blow a gasket.

And of course Yuriko, who had noticed the visible rage boiling within her daughter as Saya glared angrily at the couple standing there in each other's arms.

As far as Saya was concerned, Rei was blatantly claiming Takashi as **her** "property", and the kiss in front of her and everyone else was a deliberate act of ownership, and a deliberate slap in the face, that still annoyed Saya even now as an adult, judging from the angry look on Saya's face that had not gone unnoticed by any of the children or Saeko either.

And Saya wasn't the only one who was pissed off about the kiss Rei gave Takashi either, even though Saeko would never have admitted it.

Not that she had to.

Because even though Saeko was smiling right now, even Oyuki could feel her own mother tensing up next to her as Saya described the scene, as all of the children exchanged knowing looks and hidden smiles at each other.

Each of the children sitting there, as well as all of the other offspring of the infamous "Tokonosu Ten," knew full well about the bitter rivalry between the three now grown women over the affections of their handsome "Uncle Takashi" so long ago.

And it was all they could do to keep from bursting out in hysterical giggles at the way their mothers were acting right now, knowing the penalty for doing so would be very high, especially for Oyuki, who was already in enough trouble with her mother as it was.

Since those crazy days of their youth, the three former rivals had all grown to become much closer to each other than sisters, a bond that had been forged by the dangers and the horrors that they had all faced together during "The Outbreak".

An unbreakable bond which had only strengthened over time as their friendship, like themselves, had matured.

But even still, every now and then, small traces of the old rivalry between the three friends would surface now and then much to their children's delight, as they gleefully watched their mothers trying to interact so politely with each other while their body language spoke volumes to the contrary.

* * *

"I'm not leaving either." Kouta suddenly announced as well, as everyone turned their heads to stare at him in amazement as he reached over and gently took the knife from Shizuka's hand and closing the knife, placed it in a pocket of her robe.

He then placed Alice's hand in Shizuka's and then started walking up to join Takashi and Rei as all of the adults watched the teen in astonishment.

"But I'm not kissing you, pal. Sorry." Kouta said with a grin, as he moved over next to Takashi and clapped him soundly on the shoulder as Rei smiled at him and giggled at his attempt at humor as Kouta then turned to face Saya.

"Saya-san." Kouta said affectionately, looking over at Saya who was still too busy glaring angrily at Rei.

"Please go with your mother where it's safe, and if you would, please take care of Marikawa-sensei and Arisu-chan too please." Kouta said as he walked past Saya. "It's far too dangerous for any of you to stay here much longer."

Saya however, was still far too enraged at Rei, who was still being held tightly in Takashi's arms to think clearly, and her already foul mood was only further intensified at Kouta's words.

"**WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TELLING ME WHAT TO DO, YOU FAT OTAKU?!"** Saya screeched suddenly, in response to Kouta's request.

Yuriko cast an angry glance at Saya for her extremely rude behavior towards the obviously caring young man, and was astonished at Kouta's gentle reply to her daughter's ugly rebuff.

Without any visible anger at Saya's angry remark, Kouta merely turned his head and smiling kindly, replied in a voice so gentle that even Saya was dumbstruck at his amorous reply.

"Forgive me, I don't mean to sound bossy, Saya-san." Kouta replied, smiling at her. "But like Komuro-kun, I just want the person **I love,** to be safe."

"Because if something ever happened to you." Kouta continued. "I would no longer wish to go on living either."

Saya immediately blushed at Kouta's obvious expression of his affection for her and was momentarily at a loss for words.

And then noticing that everyone staring at her and waiting for a response, Saya immediately tried to blow off Kouta's obvious display of his affections for her, in order to preserve her dignity.

And as always, her words to Kouta were anything but cordial.

"**Shut up, you fat jerk!"** Saya shouted.

* * *

Saya paused from relating the rest of her story momentarily as all of the children suddenly broke into a sudden fit of hysterical giggles and then everyone began rolling around in the grass, all of them roaring with laughter.

"**Why are all of you laughing?!"** Saya said, glaring at the children as they continued to laugh around her for a few moments longer before anyone had the breath to speak.

"Wow, Mom,…" Midori said between fits of laughter. "You were a real jerk to dad back then."

Saeko was laughing just as hard as Saya's children were as she looked over at her old friend who was glaring at her as well.

"She's quite correct, Saya-chan." Saeko said trying to compose herself, and failing miserably. "You were always so mean to Kouta-kun even though he was always being so sweet towards you."

Deeply embarrassed, Saya blushed beet-red at Saeko's reply, and then cleared her throat as a warning for the rest of her children to settle down so she could continue.

"Things were different with us back then and I didn't know him as well as I do now, so now all of you hush, so I can finish this story!" Saya said ignoring everyone's laughter at her embarrassment.

"As it turns out," Saya said crossly, continuing on with her story despite the rather loud giggles of the children as well as Saeko. "Your father and your "Aunt Rei,"weren't the only ones who volunteered to stay behind either."

* * *

"Unless any of you has any medical training, and I don't believe any of you do." Shizuka said suddenly as everyone then turned their heads to gape at her.

"Then I believe I will be staying too." Shizuka said as she then walked over towards Yuriko and placed Alice's hand in Yuriko's and then turned to face the small child who was still holding her pet puppy in her arm.

"Arisu-chan." Shizuka said gently to the young girl. "I want you to go with Saya-oneechan and her mother, okay?"

"Why, Oba-chan?" Alice asked, afraid at being separated by the woman that she had "bonded" with, who had treated her so kindly since her wild rescue last night.

"Saya-oneechan and her mother are going away to a **very** nice house, Arisu-chan." Shizuka tried to explain, trying not to upset the small child whom she could tell was already beginning to grow afraid at the very thought of being separated from her.

''And I want you to go with them so you can be safe from the "bad people"." Shizuka said gently.

"But Oba-chan, what about you?" Alice replied, beginning to sense that she was never going to see "Shizuka-obachan" again from the way Shizuka was speaking.

"Aren't you coming too?" Alice said her eyes beginning to tear.

"No Arisu-chan, I'm going to stay and take care of "Ojii-chan" because he's hurt and needs our help." Shizuka said using the honorific that Alice had used when referring to the American, as she brushed Alice's hair with her fingers.

"**Then I want to stay with you, too!"** Alice replied releasing Yuriko's hand and looking into Shizuka's face as big crocodile tears fell from her eyes.

"You can't,it's just not safe here, Arisu-chan." Shizuka replied kneeling down to look at the girl in the face. "The bad people are coming, and I want you to go with "Yuriko-Obaachan", where you'll be safe."

"I'll be back soon, I promise." Shizuka said, although the look on her face and the tone of her voice was completely unconvincing.

* * *

Yuriko's eyes narrowed at Shizuka's obvious attempt at a hidden insult by calling her "Obaa-chan" (old lady) instead of "Oba-chan" (aunt) but said nothing so as not to interrupt Shizuka's attempts to convince the little girl to leave with them.

Saya paused again for a moment from telling her story as she grinned at the memory of the look on her mother's face at Shizuka calling her an "old woman," in front of everyone, as everyone stared at Saya, puzzled as to why she had suddenly stopped speaking and then began grinning evilly for no apparent reason, before she continued.

"When will you be back?" Alice asked starting to sniffle.

"I don't know." Shizuka replied trying to be consoling. "But don't worry, I'll be fine."

"**No you won't!"** Alice yelled, tears falling as she began crying again. **"You're not going to be all right! The bad people are coming and you're going to die just like my Papa!"**

"Arisu-chan." Shizuka began, trying to comfort her.

"**NO!"** Alice screamed as she placed the puppy on the ground and then wrapped her arms around Shizuka's neck and squeezed as hard as she could, nearly choking her.

"**I'M NOT GOING!"** Alice cried as she held onto Shizuka's neck in a death grip. **"I'M STAYING WITH YOU!"**

"Arisu-chan." Shizuka said hugging the crying girl with tears falling from her own eyes as well.

"**NO! NO! NO! NO!"** Alice kept yelling over and over as everyone's heart broke at the sound of the small child crying in fear.

Yuriko watched in stunned amazement at the unswerving loyalty the children had for one another, and her heart was deeply moved by the visible display of extreme devotion that had developed between them.

One of the astonished onlookers standing nearby however, was not impressed at all by the group's devotion with each other.

* * *

"**HAVE ALL OF YOU PEOPLE LOST YOUR MINDS?!"** Yoshioka roared as everyone flinched at the Security Chief's sudden outburst.

"**THIS IS INSANE!** **Are Yo,_ "**He began, as he was about to say more but stopped as Yuriko suddenly raised her hand.

"Yoshioka-kun." Yuriko said calmly as Yoshioka quickly turned to face her.

"Enough." Yuriko said as she looked at the small group and saw the determined looks in their faces and unlike her Security Chief, realized that it was pointless to argue any further.

There was no way she was going to convince any of them to leave now, and Yuriko knew it.

"There really is no other choice left, I suppose." Yuriko sighed as she finally made up her mind on what to do about their current predicament.

"Eh?" Yoshioka replied not comprehending, as the next words that came out of Yuriko's mouth nearly caused him to blow a fuse.

* * *

"All of you!" Yuriko said in resignation to the small group gathered around Takashi. "I want you to go back inside and check on your friends and see if they're alright and then wait there for me to arrive."

"I'll be there in a minute with a vehicle to help all of you evacuate your American friend shortly." Yuriko said as she motioned for all of them to get moving.

The reaction to what Yuriko had said was the same for the children as well as for all of the adults after hearing Yuriko speak.

They were all left dumbstruck.

"What?!" Takashi replied, not quite believing at all what he was hearing.

"You heard me, go back inside the condo and see if they're both all right." Yuriko said as everyone gawked at her in disbelief.

"And if he's still alive, then we will try to take your American friend with us if we can, but we don't have much time, and I will not sacrifice my daughter or any more of my men for his sake or yours**, so move fast!" **Yuriko commanded as she waved them all off and then quickly became irritated when she saw that no one was moving, no doubt everyone still in shock at her suddenly reversing her prior decision to save the American mercenary, instead of ending his life.

"**What are you doing still standing around here looking at me for? You want to save your friend?! MOVE!"** Yuriko yelled as she pulled her pistol out of its holster and checked the magazine.

Instantly, everyone snapped out of their trance and began hurriedly moving as Takashi and Rei immediately spun around and began running through the open gates.

* * *

"Kouta-chan!" Shizuka yelled over her shoulder as she grabbed Alice's hand and both of them bounded after Takashi and Rei towards the gates. "Grab my medical pack out of the Humvee, and hurry please!"

"Hai! Kouta yelled as he quickly ran towards the trunk of the Humvee to retrieve the white medical-pack that Shizuka had been carrying ever since they had left Fujimi High.

As Saya watched her friends run through the gates she found herself unable to move, torn between the love of her friends and the love she had for her mother, cursing herself for her inability to decide on what to do.

Noticing that her daughter was hesitating, Yuriko walked over and placed her hand on Saya's shoulder.

And as Saya looked up into her mother's face, she was surprised to see that her mother was actually smiling at her as she spoke.

"Saya-chan,.." Her mother said gently. "Go along now with your friends my child, I'll be joining you in a moment."

"Mama?" Saya said still in shock.

"And Saya," Yuriko added as Saya looked into her mother's eyes. "I'm sorry, …for everything."

"Mama,…." Saya began, unable to find the words to express her own regret at the angry words she had said to her mother earlier.

Or the love and gratitude that she had for her mother now.

"We can talk about this later,… now go on my child." Yuriko said as she hugged her daughter tightly and then gently pushed her towards the gate as Saya looked back into her mother's eyes.

"Saya-chan." Her mother said to her as she then turned away and walked towards Yoshioka.

"Hai?' Saya asked as she felt her eyes burning with tears at the sight of her mother walking away from her.

"I love you, my daughter." Yuriko said as she tried to keep control of her emotions in front of her men as she walked away from her daughter to give what she knew could possibly very well be her very last orders to Yoshioka.

Saya watched her mother for a long moment and then wiped the tears from her face.

"I love you too Mama." She whispered as she turned around and ran through the open gates.

* * *

"Yoshioka-san?" Yuriko said walking up to the Security Chief who was still standing frozen in shock at having just witnessed Yuriko suddenly out of the blue, order the children to go back inside the condo and help the American when just earlier her orders had been for him to kill the man.

"Hai." Yoshioka said sounding as if he were in a daze, which in fact, he was.

"Get all of our wounded on board one of the vans and have Doi placed in another with a few men to keep him secure." Yuriko ordered as Yoshioka nodded his head, as Yuriko faced him knowing her next orders were going to send Yoshioka through the roof.

"And then I need you to get someone to pull one of them up through the driveway and up to the rear door of the condo." Yuriko said, her jaw set firmly. "We're taking the American with us."

Yoshioka already knew what Yuriko was about to order him to do, even before she said it. But to hear her actually give such insane orders as they were about to be overrun by the Infected was still too much to for the shocked man to handle.

"**TAKAGI-DONO!"** Yoshioka thundered in disbelief.

"I knew he'd be pissed." Yuriko sighed as she looked into her and her husband's old childhood friend and finished giving the rest of her orders that even she had to admit sounded insane.

* * *

"And as much as I hate to ask this of you Yoshioka-san, I need you to take what men and weapons you need, and try to buy us a little time." Yuriko continued, interrupting him as she looked into his frustration-filled face.

"I'll try to hurry things along, here." Yuriko added as Yoshioka looked at her as if she had gone mad.

"He thinks I've gone insane, and I have to admit, he's probably right." Yuriko thought as Yoshioka tried to protest further.

"Yuriko-san." Yoshioka began his eyes pleading as he tried to find the words to convince his mistress to turn away from her present insane course of action as Yuriko suddenly cut him off.

"**I know** what you're thinking Yoshioka-kun, but we **are** taking the American with us, regardless." Yuriko said firmly. "**IF** he's still alive, that is."

"Yuriko-san,…This isn't,…."Yoshioka tried once again to protest.

"I know, this wasn't our mission. Yoshioka-san." Yuriko said interrupting him.

"And this man's life was never our concern when we came across the river." Yuriko said as she watched the crowd of Infected shuffling closer towards them at the end of the street.

"We only came here to rescue Saya-chan and her friends,…" Yuriko added. "But if Saya chan and the rest of these children won't leave here without the American, then we'll just have to take him with us if we can."

"But,"…. Yoshioka stammered still trying to get a word in edgewise.

"Ken-san." Yuriko said, using Yoshioka's first name, something she never did in the presence of others before as Yoshioka realized just how desperate Yuriko Takagi really was now.

"I'm not asking this of you lightly, old friend." Yuriko said as she faced Yoshioka, her eyes pleading.

"All of you have given so much already for the sake of my family." Yuriko added as she cast her eyes downward. "And after all that you and your men have already sacrificed, I regret very much asking any more of you and your men."

"**But, **if what Busujima-san said is indeed true that the American did indeed save my Saya from being,….." Yuriko continued and then hesitated at the thought of the horrible fate that had almost befallen her daughter.

"Then what we did to him is inexcusable, and I owe him my life for saving my child." Yuriko said with a deep sigh.

Yoshioka sighed as he realized nothing he could say would change Yuriko's mind.

"Please, Ken-chan." Yuriko said as she watched the teens and their nurse run up the driveway and around the corner of the building out of sight.

"I've made so many mistakes already." Yuriko said the guilt in her voice clearly evident. "Please help me correct the mistakes I've made to Saya-chan and her friends."

"And for Doi-san." Yuiko added.

Yoshioka was too stunned to say anything in response to that as he stared at Yuriko's face.

"Please." Yuriko said as she bowed deeply before Yoshioka to the shock and surprise of Yoshioka and his men.

* * *

The Chief of Security was dumbstruck at his mistress's act of humility and was about to say something in protest, until Yuriko Takagi stood up straight and then looked him straight in the eye as she raised her left hand and tapped her watch.

"We don't have much time my old friend." Yuriko said as she then turned around and ran towards the gates.

Yoshioka stared speechless for a moment longer as he watched Yuriko Takagi running up the driveway following closely behind the fat kid who was running as fast as his legs could carry him with the med-pack hanging off of one shoulder.

And then Yoshioka's eyes widened in alarm at also seeing that the boy was also carrying a high-powered sniper rifle slung on his back.

The boy had obviously re-liberated from the back of the Humvee where all the other weapons Yoshioka and his men had seized from the condo that had been placed inside the Humvee by two of his men, and in retrieving the school nurse's medical pack had helped himself to a weapon as well.

Yoshioka was about to yell at the boy to halt but then stopped himself, noticing that Yuriko didn't seem to be all that worried about it anyway, as Yoshioka sighed and just stood watching in resignation at the kid being followed by Yuriko Takagi until they both disappeared around the other side of the condominium.

"F_ck me." Yoshioka mumbled to himself as he then sighed heavily, unslung his rifle and then flipped off the safety.

* * *

"YOU, MEN!" He roared to the small group of men still standing in the street holding the Infected man Doi and the unconscious butler/guard. "Put Doi-san in the last van and stay with him and make sure he doesn't break loose!"

"You two Fudokawa-san, and whoever else is wounded in the second van, and keep all of the engines running!" Yoshioka barked as he pulled back the charging lever of his rifle and then glanced over at Kukugari who was standing nearby, awaiting his orders.

"Kukugari-san! You and Matsudo take the lead van up the driveway and park in front of the rear door of the condo." Yoshioka ordered. "Then help Takagi-dono and those kids get the American loaded up."

"Yokai!" The family chauffer replied as he ran towards the lead van.

"Matsudo-san!" Yoshioka yelled towards the mechanic. "Before you join Kukugari, I need you to check and see if you can start that Humvee first before you go, we're going to need it!"

"Hai!" The mechanic replied as he ran towards the big American-made vehicle and climbed in.

"I always wanted to drive one of these." Matsudo said as he happily started the engine and listened with a satisfied smile at the loud roar of the big diesel.

"Yoshioka-san!" The mechanic shouted as the Humvee roared into life. "I've got it started!"

"Good!" Yoshioka replied. "Now go with Kukugari and help Takagi-sama load the American into the van. Hurry!"

"Yokai!" Matsudo said as he reluctantly hopped out of the big vehicle and then jumped into the passenger seat of the panel van as Kukugari drove up and let him climb in, as they then sped crazily up the driveway headed towards the rear of the complex.

As he watched the van speeding up the driveway, Yoshioka felt a sudden presence near him as one of the groundskeepers, an older man named Sato who was well respected by all of the men including Yoshioka, approached him from the side.

"Yoshioka-san, if you don't mind my asking, why do we need the American vehicle?" The old groundskeeper asked. "We have plenty of room to transport everyone right now with the vehicles we have on hand."

Yoshioka took a quick glance at the end of the street and then looked back towards Sato.

"One of the reasons I have for wanting to take it, is because all of the children's belongings and their weapons are still on board, Sato-san." Yoshioka replied. "And the second reason is we could always use another working vehicle, you know."

"The weapons and vehicle we can definitely use, you're right." Sato grunted in agreement.

"Hai, and my third reason is because I don't know about you Sato-san, but I'll be damned if I'm going to come back here for any of those brat's personal belongings later if we leave that vehicle here and one of them starts whining that their f_cking "iPad" was left behind." Yoshioka said with a grin as Sato laughed.

Yoshioka then took one more look down the street towards the growing horde of Infected and then looked back towards his remaining men.

There was no time for inspirational speeches about duty, honor, or anything of the like.

It was time to move.

* * *

"**The rest of you men, grab your weapons and follow me!"** Yoshioka shouted as he and Sato then turned to face the new threat approaching from down the street.

"Yoshioka-san!" A cook named Kobayashi yelled as one of the young landscapers cried out as he tried to bind his wound with a neckerchief. "Some of these men are wounded badly!"

"Understood." Yoshioka replied grimly as he checked his weapon without stopping.

"Those of you too hurt to fight, get in the van with Fudokawa-san." Yoshioka ordered as a plan of defense against the Infected began to form in his mind.

"**The rest of you that aren't that badly wounded,…SUCK IT UP!"** Yoshioka roared as the men all looked at the Security Chief. **"I need every man who is physically able, to stand with me and help me buy Takagi-dono some time!"**

"**BUT, SIR!"** Another man replied, understandably frightened at the sight of the large crowd of Infected looming nearby. "What can we possibly do against THAT?"

Yoshioka sighed as he stopped walking and pondered on the younger man's frightened words for a moment, and then sighed again and shook his head.

* * *

The men standing around Yoshioka were not combat soldiers.

They were a mix of kitchen staff, groundskeepers, and two of his Security staff.

Now, what few men he had, were even fewer now due to some of them being wounded in the rescue attempt and one of them, his right hand man, was no longer even human.

But despite their various backgrounds each of them had shown extreme courage and unswerving loyalty to the Takagi Family by volunteering for this mission, even though none but Yoshioka and his Security staff had any military experience whatsoever.

The men had been running on sheers guts alone, and now, their courage was almost near their breaking point as the screams of the helpless victims being overrun by the Infected sounded closer and closer.

And even Yoshioka was beginning to question his resolve as a man's scream of pain pierced the air just a few houses down the street as the crowd of walking death were now already past the pile of burned corpses and moving steadily towards them, no longer impeded by anything in their path.

With the exception of Yoshioka and his small band of courageous, heavily armed men standing directly in their path.

And for most of them, their courage was hanging by a thread.

"Now I know what Leonidas felt like against the Persians." Yoshikoa mumbled grimly as he searched deep within himself to find something inspirational to tell his men to help boost their courage.

And finding nothing, he did what most good commanders do when there was no easy answer to give his men when the odds were so highly stacked against their survival.

He told them what was in his heart.

* * *

"Against **that**, we can do **exactly** what Lady Takagi asked of us, gentlemen." Yoshioka replied, looking straight ahead at the large crowd of Infected shuffling towards them.

"Takagi-dono asked us to buy her some time." Yoshioka said staring straight ahead. "Not to conquer, not to vanquish, not to obliterate our enemy over there, but to buy her some time."

"And that's exactly what I'm asking all of you to help me do, now." Yoshioka said as the moans of the Infected were becoming more audible as they drew closer.

"Pretty easy assignment all things considered, don't you agree?" Yoshioka said as he looked over his shoulder at his men and grinned.

"**Sir?"** Sato replied, baffled by Yoshioka's sudden casualness in the face of impending doom.

"Well at least **those** people won't kick, stab, or scream at us like the kids who just handed our butts back to us, don't you agree gentlemen?" Yoshioka said in another rare display of humor.

There was a loud round of laughter from the men in response to Kenji Yoshioka's joke, as all of them, wounded included, grabbed their weapons and then courageously walked up towards Yoshioka.

And as they joined him, they all hastily formed a skirmish line next to him under his direction, and checked their weapons and awaited his orders.

"All right men, follow me." Yoshioka said as the handful of brave men then walked towards their uncertain future.

* * *

As the mix of kitchen staff, landscapers, and Security personnel walked towards the horde of looming death headed towards them, there was not one among them who was not frightened to his very core.

Yet, not a one turned to flee, and neither were there any mention made of turning back or fleeing amongst the small group of armed men as they moved forward with weapons ready, until they finally came to a halt 200 feet away from their waiting vehicles, and waited nervously for Yoshioka's command to open fire.

"These are good men I have here with me." Yoshioka thought as he gazed upon the brave men with him, each of them visibly frightened, but determined to make their stand with Yoshioka and help buy the precious time Yuriko Takagi sorely needed to accomplish this final insane mission, even if it might end up being their last stand.

"And these men deserve to know how much their courage is appreciated." Yoshioka thought as he cleared his throat and looked into the faces of his men.

"Gentlemen," Yoshioka began as another pain-filled scream rent the air nearby.

"I know that this mission has not been even closely related to your normal line of work." Yoshioka said as the scream rose in pitch.

"And I know that you've already gone above and beyond to help Takagi-dono rescue Saya-sama." He added as the scream was suddenly cut off.

" And we all know that we have all gotten a little more than we bargained for on this trip already, but I want to say with all my being,….." Yoshika said hesitating a moment as the Infected responded to the sound of his voice and quickly began to press towards them.

"Thank you." Yoshioka said, as he raised his rifle to his shoulder as his men nodded their heads in respect to him.

"Just remember men." Yoshioka added. "Aim for the head, breathe out slowly, and then squeeze the trigger."

A chorus of "Hai's" sounded along the skirmish line as each man raised his weapon to his shoulder and waited for the command to open fire.

* * *

Most of the men that had volunteered to help in the rescue had never held a weapon before today much less fired one in anger before, and despite that each man held firm, determined to stand his ground.

The tension was thick as the nerves of each man were stretched to their absolute limit waiting for the order from the Security Chief to open fire. And as the Infected closed the distance and seemed to almost be within arm's reach, the order that the men had been eagerly awaiting finally came.

"**OPEN FIRE!** Yoshioka roared as smoke and flame erupted immediately from the muzzles of each man's rifle and the bodies of the Infected began to fall.

* * *

There had been little time to train his men on how to handle their weapons in preparation for the rescue attempt, and Yoshioka had been sick with worry because of it during the entire trip from Takagi Manor through the secret military tunnels linked underneath the river between each section of the city.

An ultra-secret route known only by the Military in preparation for mass evacuation of the city, or for covert insertion of troops and equipment in case of enemy invasion.

It would have been a court martial offense if news ever leaked out of General Isoroku Ihara having allowed the secret security codes to fall into the hands of civilians for them to gain access to use the tunnels, not to mention also providing them with the necessary arms and ammunition needed for the rescue.

Of course the mission still would not have gotten off the ground if General Ihara hadn't also kept the patrols protecting the entrance to the underground labyrinth occupied elsewhere and the security cameras turned off on that section of the tunnels.

But Yuriko Takagi's older brother had not hesitated in the slightest to provide anything that would help his sister and his brother-in-law in the successful recovery of his only beloved niece.

"Much had been sacrificed in this rescue attempt." Yoshioka thought as fired into the horde. "And we owe it to everyone who's sacrificed so much already to make it a successful one."

And now despite everything that had happened, the men were proving what brave souls they really were and how fiercely dedicated they were to the mission as each of the chefs, groundskeepers, and bodyguards stood their ground and bought the needed time Yuriko Takagi needed, as the men fired their weapons, hastily reloaded, and then continued their murderous rate of fire as the bodies of the Infected began to pile up on one another.

Yoshioka dropped his now third empty magazine from his rifle and then reached into his combat vest for a fresh magazine, and did a quick count of his remaining magazines as he looked out of the corner of his eye towards his men and also noticed that some of them were also beginning to run low on ammunition.

"Yuriko-san, please hurry." Yoshioka mumbled anxiously as he slapped another magazine in his rifle home and opened fire at an Infected policeman a mere 40 feet away from their skirmish line as the top of the Infected man's head exploded and the body fell to the ground.

* * *

Inside the condo owned by Officer Rika Minami, Saeko Busujima was still kneeling next to the unconscious American, her arms wrapped around the man's shoulders as she lay her head on his back sobbing loudly.

All remnants of the fierce courage and stoic demeanor that she had displayed earlier in the face of Yuriko Takagi and her guards that had terrified them all, was now gone.

In the face of utter hopelessness and fear, Saeko had bravely faced it for as long as she could, far longer than most people, until finally, her remaining courage left her.

And now all that was left was a terrified young teenage girl all alone and afraid and not knowing what to do to help the man she regarded as a friend, and father figure, as the sounds of death came closer and closer.

With no one to help, and no way to defend herself with all of their weapons seized by the guards, Saeko suddenly lifted her head up from the unconscious man's back and shook the man violently, screaming loudly for the man to wake up, trying desperately to find some way of getting him to regain consciousness.

"**JIMU-SAN!"** Saeko screamed. **"PLEASE! WAKE UP!**

No longer thinking rationally as panic set in Saeko continued to shake, prod and scream at the unconscious man frantically, when she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

Quickly wiping the tears from her face, she grabbed her knife from off the floor near her and was just about to snap the blade open and prepare to defend herself from attack when a familiar shout reached her ears.

"I have never been so scared, or felt so very much alone as that time when I was kneeling there next to your "Uncle Jimu" that day trying to wake him up as the Infected were coming for us." Saeko said suddenly interrupting Saya as the children all looked towards her.

"And I've never ever felt so helpless before as when I was kneeling there next to him as he lay there bleeding and unconscious on the floor, and not knowing what I could possibly do to help him." Saeko said as she brushed away a tear.

"All I could do was cry as I tried to shake him awake." Saeko said wiping her face as more tears began to fall from her face as Saya looked sadly upon her best friend, knowing how painful it was for her to be re-living that horrible moment all over again, as Saeko managed to compose herself somewhat and then reached over and brushed Oyuki's hair with her hand.

"And just when I thought "death" was about to come through the door." Saeko said as she placed her arms around Oyuki's shoulders.

"I was overjoyed to see that it was "hope" that had come for the both of us instead." Saeko said smiling over at Saya.

* * *

"SAEKO!" Takashi shouted as he suddenly appeared at the door and then walked towards her to Saeko's surprise.

"KOMURO!" Saeko cried out as her shoulders dropped in relief at seeing Takashi walking through the door, greatly relieved that by some miracle Takashi had somehow managed to break away from his captor's and had run back to help her.

Saeko's joy then turned into shock as suddenly Rei also came through the door, followed closely by Shizuka and Alice stepped through as well, who then ran over to her to examine the injured mercenary.

And then to Saeko's further surprise Saya then walked through the door, followed by Kouta who was carrying Shizuka's medical kit with him.

"Minna-san!" Saeko said in surprise.

Shizuka said nothing as she hurriedly ran over and knelt down to examine the unconscious American as Kouta stood next to her trying to trying to offer any help if he could.

And then seemed to look as if he were about to vomit after seeing the American's large head wound close-up as the rest of her friends swarmed around her.

* * *

"If you're going to puke, move away from him, lard-ass!" Saya said hotly, dismayed with Kouta's queasiness, forgetting her own uneasiness at seeing the tip of her knife wet with Matsudo's blood after she had poked him in the hand earlier.

"Sempai, are you allright?" Rei asked as she hugged Saeko.

"Hai, demo Jimu-san." Saeko said looking over at Shizuka who seemed to be intently examining the man's head wound.

"He'll be all right now that we're all here." Takashi said with a grin. "Don't worry Saeko, everything's going to be all right now."

"Saeko-Oneechan!" Alice yelled happily as she also ran over to Saeko and hugged her.

The sudden presence of all her friends around her greatly overwhelmed Saeko as all of her friends surrounded her and offered comfort when just moments before, Saeko was in the deepest throws of despair.

And now she felt something she didn't think she would ever feel again.

Safe.

* * *

"What are all of you doing here? What happen_" Saeko was about to say when Yuriko Takagi suddenly walked through the door.

At the sight of her, Saeko suddenly tensed again and was about to reach for her knife when Saya reached over and touched her shoulder.

"It's all right sempai, my mother has agreed to help us." Saya said as Saeko looked at her wide-eyed in shock.

"What made you change your mind?" Saeko asked Yuriko as she turned to face her.

"You told your friends to fight, Saeko-chan." Yuriko replied as Saeko gazed upon Yuriko's smiling face.

"And thanks to you, they did." Yuriko said with a smirk.

"And after we told my mother we weren't leaving without you and Jimu-san."Saya said. "My mother changed her mind and has decided to help us."

Saeko looked over at Yuriko and felt her eyes tearing up at the sudden realization that help had indeed arrived and the nightmare was indeed almost over.

Seeing Saeko's relief at having been saved by her friends, Saya hugged her as tears fell down Saeko's face as she began to weep from a mixture of relief and joy.

"And now we're going home." Saya said.

* * *

"I had never been so happy or so relieved as when your mother told me those words." Saeko said looking down upon the children.

"We would have been dead, if not for your mother convincing your grandmother to help us." Saeko said as Saya's children looked over at their mother who was blushing at Saeko's praise.

"I really didn't do all that much." Saya said still blushing.

"I think your mother would disagree." Saeko said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I bet she would." Saya agreed as she chuckled to herself.

"But the truth was, we weren't safe yet." Saya added as the children leaned closer to hear what happened next.

* * *

The sudden sound of gunfire coming from the street startled everyone as Yuriko walked towards the front of the room and glanced down upon the still figure of the American as she walked past.

"Don't celebrate yet." Yuriko said as she quickly glanced at her watch and then removed her pistol from its holster. "Unless we hurry up, none of us are going anywhere."

"Sensei, is he still alive?" Yuriko asked Shizuka anxiously as she glanced over at the nurse who was kneeling over the unconscious man and then turned her attention towards the front windows of the condo.

"Sensei?" Yuriko repeated after not receiving a reply from the school nurse.

"Marikawa-sensei? Are you alright?" Yuriko heard Saeko ask, noticing that the teenage girl's voice sounded very anxious for some reason.

And then when nurse still did not respond, Yuriko then turned her head back towards the school nurse and was alarmed to see Shizuka kneeling next to the fallen man, her face ashen, staring blankly at him spellbound it seemed, by the very grotesque sight of the man's scalp peeled back with his skull exposed and blood still oozing from the tissue surrounding the wound.

"Sensei?!" Yuriko said a little louder as she watched Shizuka continued to stare blankly at the unconscious man as all of the children looked first at the nurse and then looked up towards Yuriko with scared, anxious eyes.

"Oba-chan?" Alice said looking at Shizuka as Rei held her close.

Shizuka raised her head and looked over at Yuriko with tear-filled eyes.

"I don't think there's anything I can do." Shizuka said.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I wanted to post this chapter this morning before I went on shift, but instead, I ended up chopping off one third of it and saved that for the next chapter and tried to polish up what you're reading right now by Monday afternoon.

So for those of you wondering, yeah, I meant to leave you on a cliff-hanger.

Just not this one.

The next chapter will be the one with it.

Yes, I know.

I'm evil. :P

But I think you'll like the next chapter.

And also for those of you who are wondering, no, I'm not trying to drag the story on indefinitely.

But now that Jim is hurt, I figured it would be a good time to write these next couple of chapters this way, because I did want to write this part of the story from the teenager's point of view as they're telling their story to their children.

One of the reasons I wrote it this way, I had mentioned in the last "Author's Notes" that I wrote about in the last chapter.

I also did it this way because I also wanted to get all of the adults together along with their children with the exception of a few who are at the airport so that everyone is all there on the hill as quick as possible which will be in the next chapter.

The people at the airport will be joining the families on the hill when I wrap up "Last Alarm" and the "man" from Texas finally arrives.

And I really wanted to show how the events during "The Outbreak" really affected everyone afterwards without having to write a completely different story.

However the rest of the story won't be like this to get the pace going as it all starts to hit the fan.

It'll be written as before as if it's really unfolding as you read, with only a few breaks in between so that the adults can interact with the children.

By doing this, you'll get to see what was going on through the HOTD cast's mind as things unfolded.

However, introducing the rest of the cast won't be as long or detailed as this one in the next chapter so I can get the story moving along.

But I did think it important to introduce the children of the now adult HOTD cast because as you will see towards the end of "Last Alarm", things soon go very bad.

And the whole reason the adults are telling their children about what happened to them is because the children want to know exactly what happened that has affected their parents so horribly years afterwards.

And I also wanted to introduce you to Saeko's daughter Oyuki.

And when "Last Alarm" has finally reached the final chapter, you will then understand why Oyuki, is so deeply loved by her "Aunts" and "Uncles", and not because of her martial arts skill or for being Saeko's daughter.

Let's just say she is a very special child to everyone, especially Saeko.

So bear with me, it'll all come together.

Thanks again for your support!


	28. Chapter 27 - A Child's Love Part Four

Last Alarm

Chapter 27

"A Child's Love"

Part Four

* * *

"Sensei, is he still alive?" Yuriko asked Shizuka, glancing over at the unconscious man as she walked by, her brow furrowed with concern over the welfare of her men as the fury of their gunfire seemed to be increasing.

"Sounds like it's getting **really** ugly out there. " Yuriko thought to herself as she glanced at her watch and grimaced at how much time had already passed since she and the children had returned to the condo.

"We really need to get moving, and quickly." Yuriko mumbled as she realized that the nurse hadn't replied to her question of the man's condition yet.

"Sensei, did you hear me?" Yuriko repeated a little louder after not receiving a reply from the school nurse as she looked out towards the front window, growing more anxious at the sounds of battle drawing nearer.

"Marikawa-sensei? Are you alright?" Yuriko heard the young girl Saeko ask the nurse, noticing that the teenage girl's voice sounded very anxious for some reason.

And then when the school nurse still did not respond to the teenager either, Yuriko then turned her head back towards the school nurse and was alarmed to see Shizuka kneeling next to the injured man, her face ashen in appearance and staring blankly at him, seemingly frozen in shock by the very grotesque sight of the man's scalp peeled back with his skull exposed and blood still oozing from the tissue surrounding the wound.

"**Sensei?!"** Yuriko said a little louder as she began to grow concerned that something must be seriously wrong, as Shizuka continued to stare blankly at the unconscious man without moving, as all of the children looked first towards the spellbound nurse and then looked up towards Yuriko with scared, anxious eyes.

"Oba-chan?" Alice said looking at Shizuka as Rei held her close.

Shizuka raised her head and looked over at Yuriko with tear-filled eyes.

"I don't think there's anything I can do." Shizuka said, her voice almost cracking with emotion.

"What do you mean?!" Yuriko said with alarm. "Is he dead?"

"No,..I-I,….."Shizuka replied stammering her words, seemingly unable to speak clearly.

"**SENSEI, IS HE DYING?!"** Saeko screamed in panic, believing now that her friends had been too late to help the injured American after all.

"NO! I,….what I mean is…." Shizuka stammered as everyone in their panic, began shouting all at once.

"What's wrong?!" "What's the matter with him?!" Can't you do something?!" How can we help?" " Sensei,Why aren't you doing anything?!" "SENSEI, PLEASE DO SOMETHING!"

"**STOP IT!"** Shizuka screamed as everyone immediately stopped shouting as they watched the nurse place her hands on the sides of her head as tears fell from her face.

* * *

"**EVERYONE SHUT UP AND LET HER SPEAK, DAMMIT!"** Yuriko roared, shutting everyone down before the panic set in and the situation went spiraling out of control.

"Sensei, what's wrong? Why can't you help him?" Yuriko asked calmly as the children anxiously waited for Shizuka's reply.

"**I've just never treated someone injured like this before!"** Shizuka wailed as she looked into Yuriko's eyes. "I've mostly treated cuts and scrapes and maybe even a few broken bones, but never something like this!"

"**BUT YOU'RE A NURSE!"** Saeko shouted angrily as Saya wrapped her arms around her, trying to calm her down.

"**A SCHOOL NURSE!"** Shizuka replied loudly. "I never treated an injury this severe before!"

"**But you saw him get hit!"** Saeko shouted as Saya and Takashi both tried to calm her. **"Now you're saying there's nothing you can do?!"**

"**I didn't know he was this badly hurt!"** Shizuka continued as everyone could see her hands shaking.

"This is worse than I thought it was!" Shizuka said as she gritted her teeth.

"He needs a medevac, a CT scan, bloodwork, IV's, major surgery,…!" Shizuka added as she looked at everyone apologetically.

"**I can't do any of those things for him!"** Shizuka wailed as everyone looked on helplessly.

"I-I don't know what to do that will help." Shizuka said as she wiped her eyes.

* * *

Yuriko looked directly into the face of the frightened nurse and realized that the reason for the nurse's hesitation to treat the injured American was not that the nurse wasn't qualified to treat the man, no matter how severe his injuries.

The real problem was that for all of her medical know-how, the school nurse had just never had to deal with such a traumatic injury as the one that was now before her, and seeing how serious the man's wounds were for the first time, she was overwhelmed by the extent of his injuries and was reacting out of fear not because of inexperience or lack of skill,…but of failure.

There was unfortunately, little time for sympathy.

* * *

"Sensei, listen to me." Yuriko said gently, as she knelt next to Shizuka and grabbed her arm and stared intently into her eyes.

"At our residence we have an emergency medical unit all set up for the treatment of the many refugees that have sought refuge at our home." Yuriko began.

"There are doctors and nurses there and a surgical team there as well that were all evacuated from Tokonosu General, and right now they are currently treating people even as we speak, and I'm sure that they can more than likely handle this type of injury **once,…we,…get,…there."** Yuriko said pausing on her last words for emphasis so that the overwhelmed nurse could grasp her words.

"All **you** have to do, Sensei," Yuriko continued. "Is do your best to help him **until we,….get,…..there.** Yuriko said again pausing on her last few words.

"But,…" Shizuka replied, still hesitating.

"**Sensei, listen to me closely."** Yuriko said through gritted teeth, her patience wearing thin with the hesitant nurse.

"My men are risking their lives out there all alone against an entire city, because I talked those poor men into trying to buy us some time so that we could try to help this man, **because all of you refused to leave without him." **Yuriko began angrily.

"Now, if you're going to just kneel there and tell me that there's no way you can help this man just because you can't pull it together, then I will have no choice but to leave him behind, because I will not lose any more of **my friends** on account of **any of you** today." Yuriko said coldly.

"And **I will **be taking my daughter with me when I leave." Yuriko said as she glanced over at Saya who gulped at the look in her mother's eyes, knowing full well that there would be no arguing with her mother this time.

"And whether any of you comes with us or not, won't matter to me **one bit**." Yuriko added as she glared at the rest of the teens.

"**So pull it together, Sensei!"** Yuriko snapped.

"Hai!" Shizuka responded as she stared once more at the open head wound and closed her eyes as tears began to again fall down her face.

* * *

Yuriko looked upon the young nurse's face and felt moved by the sight of the young woman wrestling against her fear, and in a moment of pity, Yuriko took a deep breath despite her own mounting anxiety, and tried once more to get through to the scared nurse.

"Sensei, listen to me." Yuriko began as she spoke softly to Shizuka, trying mightily to keep her own emotions in check. "You and these children all seem to care about this man a lot, which is very plain to see."

"Hai." Shizuka replied, opening her eyes and looking at Yuriko.

"And obviously all of you cared about him enough so that that every one of you were willing to risk everything, including your own lives by fighting against my men and refusing to leave until we agreed to also take this man as well as all of you, with us."

"Which tells me, Sensei," Yuriko continued. "Is that this man must have done something special to earn that type of loyalty and trust from all of you, am I right in my assumption?"

"Hai." Shizuka replied. "He has done a lot for us in fact, for the past two days."

"Then wouldn't you agree that it's safe to assume that he would feel the same way about all of you, Sensei?" Yuriko said smiling. "And that if something happened to him, that he would trust all of you to do what you can for him, even if it's not enough in the end?"

"I-I suppose so."Shizuka replied, nodding her head as she wiped her eyes.

"What is your name, Sensei?" Yuriko asked suddenly.

"Eh?" Shizuka replied, caught off guard by Yuriko's question.

"What is your name?" Yuriko repeated.

"Marikawa, Shizuka." Shizuka replied.

"I truly believe that this man trusted you, Shizuka-san." Yuriko said. "And all anyone can ask of someone they trust is for them to try their best when they need their help."

"So all I ask of you Shizuka-san, is to do your best to help him now and keep him alive **if you can**, until we can get him to where **he needs to be, Sensei**." Yuriko said softly to Shizuka as she patted her shoulder.

"I'm sure that your best is all this man would ever ask for from you too, Shizuka-san." Yuriko said as she gave Shizuka a comforting squeeze on her shoulder.

"And if it wasn't enough, he would not fault you for trying." Yuriko said smiling.

"It'll be all right, Shizuka-san." Yuriko said hoping that her words would be enough to encourage the nurse to move into action finally.

"Just take a deep breath," Yuriko continued. "And think about what you need to do, and what **we** need to do to help you, alright?"

"Hai." Shizuka said as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then slowly let it out.

* * *

And upon opening her eyes, Shizuka then began to finally focus on the job at hand as she went down her mental checklist to begin treatment on a patient with traumatic injuries of the like that she had never faced before, as she reached into her own medical kit and placed a pair of latex surgical gloves over her hands as the children, kneeling nervously nearby, anxiously watched her every move.

Jimu-san? Jimu-san? Can you hear me?" Shizuka said checking for a response, as she felt along the man's neck for a carotid pulse, and then after not receiving a response, then reached over and pinched the skin on the top of his left hand.

"Sensei, Jimu-san wouldn't move at all, even when I screamed in his ear and shook him hard." Saeko said, trying to be helpful as she gazed worriedly over the unconscious man.

"Wakatta. Thank you Saeko-chan." Shizuka replied as she smiled at Saeko, trying to build up the spirits of the young girl and the rest of the teens, and trying to help her deal with her own apprehension in the process, as she continued her patient assessment.

"Patient is not responsive to verbal or painful stimuli." Shizuka said out loud as she then bent down low and looked into the man's blood-covered face and gasped.

"**What is it!"** Saeko said, alarmed.

"Calm down, child." Yuriko said soothingly to Saeko. "Let her concentrate."

Saeko glanced at Yuriko, and then back towards Shizuka, as she knelt helplessly waiting for something to be done to help the American, as she now began to experience the same fear and anxiety every person feels while seeing their loved ones in a crisis.

"Shizuka-san, what is it?' Yuriko asked as she grimaced at the sound of battle outside.

"He has massive swelling and edema to his face, especially around the eyelids." Shizuka replied.

"Is that bad?" Rei asked worriedly as she was busy trying to console Alice who had her head turned away from the gruesome sight.

"Yes,….I mean,…possibly." Shizuka replied catching herself, as she tried to pry the man's blood-covered eyelids open.

"It may indicate massive bleeding in the brain cavity as well as under the facial tissue." Shizuka said as she finally managed to pry the man's swollen eyelids open and shined the beam of a small penlight into each of his eyes, and then shined the bright beam of the penlight into both of his ears.

"No visible signs of blood or CSF in either ear." Shizuka said out loud, making a mental checklist of all of her findings during her assessment of the American's wounds.

"CSF?" Saeko asked, starting to grow more frightened by the terminology Shizuka was using that sounded so grim to her ears.

"Cerebrospinal fluid." Shizuka explained as she took the man's pulse. "It's the clear fluid that covers and protects the brain."

"If any of it was leaking out of his ears, then that would indicate his condition is definitely **very **serious." Shizuka replied as she continued her assessment.

"His pulse is very weak, and his respirations are also very slow, with pupils slow to respond to light." Shizuka said as she looked into her bag and then pulled out a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.

"I don't have anything in my med-pack that will handle these types of injuries." Shizuka said out loud as she began to wrap the blood pressure cuff around the man's arm.

"All right, then what do you need?" Yuriko said calmly as she raised her hand to shush everyone who were just about to begin shouting in panic again.

"She **really** needs to work on her bedside manner." Yuriko thought with a frown. "Oh well, at least she's focused on what she's doing now."

* * *

"The small med-pak that Jimu-san has attached to his main pack was better equipped for battlefield injuries than what I have." Shizuka said as she placed the earpieces of the stethoscope in her ears. "I need the supplies he has in it, or he's going to continue to deteriorate."

"**And,"** Shizuka added as she squeezed the bulb filling the bladder of the sphygmomanometer as she took the man's blood pressure. "We need to transport him to your medical facility as fast as possible."

"We loaded his pack into the Humvee last night; I can run over and get it!" Takashi offered as he turned to run out the door.

"I'm afraid we don't have enough time for that." Yuriko stated as the sound of the gunfire seemed to be coming a lot closer to their position, indicating that Yoshioka and his men were now losing ground and were beginning to pull back. "We need to get moving, now!"

"BP is 70/50, and falling." Shizuka said out loud as she looked over at Yuriko. "Patient is going into shock."

Yuriko gritted her teeth in frustration as she then spied the chubby teen standing nearby with a high-powered rifle in his hands, who gulped as he met her angry gaze.

"You!" Yuriko said in a commanding voice as Kouta reflexively snapped to attention. "What's your name, son?"

"H-Hirano, Kouta. Age sixteen, Ma'am!" Kouta said as he looked at her.

"Hirano-kun, do you know how to use that, rifle?" Yuriko said, pointing at his weapon.

"YES, Ma'am!" Kouta acknowledged with pride in his voice.

"Good. Then go up to the front door and keep a close watch on the street!" Yuriko ordered. "I want to know what's happening out there!"

"YOKAI!" Kouta replied as he ran to the front door and stepped outside onto the patio.

"Yuriko-san!" Shizuka said as Yuriko turned her head and met her gaze.

"I can't stabilize him with what I have with me!" Shizuka shouted. "He needs advanced therapy and I.V. fluids to replace the lost fluid volume so that he doesn't go into hypovolemic shock from massive hemorrhage!"

To Yuriko and everyone else in the room not familiar with human anatomy and physiology as well as medical terminology, Shizuka's words made about as much sense as Stephen Hawkins trying to explain Quantum Physics to a room full of preschoolers.

But the tone of her voice and the serious look on her face was more than enough to convince everyone that her patient's situation was desperate.

"**What do you need then?!"** Yuriko asked, confused by the nurse's words and growing more anxious as she stared out the front door at the sounds of battle.

"I need to get to Jimu-san's pack as quickly as possible!" Shizuka replied as Yuriko bit her lip.

"All right, we'll grab it as soon as we drive back out into the street!" Yuriko replied in frustration. "Do what you can for him in the meantime!"

"Hai!" Shizuka replied grimacing at the sound of the gunfire and the enormous pressure on her to stabilize the injured man with what few supplies she had that were more appropriate for minor cuts and scrapes than large traumatic injuries such as an open head wound.

* * *

"Sensei," Takashi offered. "What can we do to help?"

"I need someone to get me two large towels, one dry, and one soaked in warm water." Shizuka said as she began squeezing the bulb attached to the blood pressure cuff, re-inflating the cuff again.

"I'll get them!" Saya shouted as she hurriedly rushed off to the bathroom to get the towels.

As the sounds of gunfire drew closer, and the tension in the room grew higher, Yuriko had to prevent herself from running outside to join her men as she watched the school nurse trying desperately to race against the clock.

"His vital signs are still very low." Shizuka said as she deflated the cuff.

"What can I do to help?" Saeko asked as she looked at Shizuka desperately trying to save the man's life.

"Talk to him, Saeko-chan." Shizuka said wiping the sweat from her face as she then listened to the man's lungs with the stethoscope.

"But he's unconscious!" Saeko said feeling helpless. "How is that going to help?"

"Because perhaps by the sound of your voice he will know that we are still here." Shizuka said gently.

"I know he's unconscious, but sometimes it helps trauma victims anyway even if they're unresponsive, by talking to them as if they can hear you." Shizuka said, as she then began probing along the man's neck and spine, knowing that by her keeping Saeko busy with talking to the injured man, she was also helping the frightened teen to relieve her own anxiety as well.

"Jimu-san? Jimu-san?" Saeko said, squeezing the unconscious man's hand as tears fell down her face.

"We didn't leave you, Jimu-san. We're here with you." Saeko said as she continued to speak, not knowing if she was being heard, but willing to try anything that would help.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Rei asked curiously as she held the still-crying Alice in her arms, as Shizuka kept probing up and down the man's spine with her fingers.

"I'm checking for any possible fractures or injuries to his spine." Shizuka replied. "We're going to have to roll him over, and I don't want to aggravate any spinal injuries if there are any."

"What will happen if we do?" Saeko asked apprehensively.

"We could accidentally sever his spinal cord and either permanently paralyze him," Shizuka replied. "Or possibly kill him."

"Geez, could you at least try to tone it down for the children's sake, drama queen?" Yuriko mumbled to herself through gritted teeth.

"I don't feel any deformities or any signs of injury, that's good news." Shizuka said as Saya finally arrived with the towels.

"Yuriko-san, I need something to serve as a backboard or litter so we can roll him onto it." Shizuka said out loud, as she pulled a few small 2X2 gauze sponges from her pack and prepared to dress the ugly wound.

And then after taking a deep breath, Shizuka then gently lifted the large flap of the man's torn scalp and flipped it back over the exposed skull, cringing slightly as she did so, the loose flap of scalp feeling jelly-like in her hand as she laid it back over the exposed area.

"Komuro-kun!" Yuriko began, pausing a moment and then breathing a sigh of relief upon hearing the sound of one of the vans finally pulling up to the rear of the condo, followed by the sound of the doors of the van being opened as, Kukugari and Matsudo then both walked through the door.

"Hai!" Takashi replied, turning away from the sight of Shizuka folding the American's scalp back into place and seeming like he was almost ready to puke.

"I need you to find something that we can use to carry this man on!" Yuriko shouted as Shizuka used the wet towel to wipe some of the blood away from the man's face and scalp and then placed some small gauze sponges over the wound.

"Like what?!" Takashi asked, looking a little pale.

Yuriko looked around the living room of the condo and then spied the door of a small closet next to the kitchen.

"I need you and my men to yank that door off its hinges, and make sure you tear the door knob off as well, and when you're done doing that, bring it over here!" Yuriko shouted as she then turned towards the front door.

"**HIRANO!"** Yuriko roared.

"HAI?!" Kouta shouted in reply from the small patio.

"**What's happening out there, I need a *sitrep?!"** Yuriko shouted as she heard the sound of a grunt and then the sound of wood splintering as the small closet door was torn off its hinges by the three men.

(*Sitrep- Military term for "Situation Report")

"They're keeping "Them" at bay for now!" Kouta replied. "But we really need to hurry because the Infected are really pressing in on them, and they're beginning to fall back!"

"All right then, get back over here and help us!" Yuriko shouted as Takashi and the other two men hurriedly walked over carrying the small door.

* * *

"What do you want us to do now, Sensei?" Yuriko asked as Shizuka was wrapping the dry towel around the American's head as Rei was wiping the rest of the blood from his face with the wet one.

"I need all of you to help me roll him over onto that door when I tell you." Shizuka said as she motioned for Saya and Rei to kneel on the unconscious man's left side.

"And we need to be careful when we do it, or we'll be doing him more harm than good." Shizuka added grimly as everyone nodded in understanding.

As the women all positioned themselves on the man's left side, Shizuka then motioned for Matsudo, Takashi, and Kukugari to bring the door over and place it against the man's left side in front of the kneeling women, and then after the door was in position, she then had them kneel on the floor on the American's right side.

She then grabbed the American's left arm and straightened it out on the floor over his head as she grabbed the man's head gently in her hands.

"When I count to three," Shizuka said looking towards the anxious eyes of all the people staring at her.

"I want all of you men to roll him over at the same time towards the door while I hold his head still. I want to make sure his body stays in-line at the same time, understand?" Shizuka said as everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"I want the rest of you to help us keep him from rolling over too fast when we roll him onto the door, understand? " Shizuka added as she looked at the women kneeling next to the door.

"All right everyone, ready? " Shizuka asked as everyone readied themselves.

"One, Two, THREE, ROLL!" Shizuka ordered as everyone gently rolled the man over onto the door.

And then after another command from the nurse, they all then centered his body on it, as Shizuka then finished wrapping the man's head with the towel.

"All right everyone, let's go!" Shizuka said as everyone then placed their hands underneath the edges of the door and lifted the unconscious man off the floor using the door as a makeshift litter.

The closet door was only five and a half feet in length as compared to the man's six foot height and so as a result, the American's feet were almost comically left hanging off the edge of the smaller door.

But there was no time left to be choosy as everyone hurriedly carried the injured man out to the awaiting van and slid him along the floor of the vehicle, as everyone then hurriedly piled in afterwards and slammed the doors shut, as the roar of gunfire drew closer.

And as Takashi tried to reposition the man's feet so the rear doors wouldn't hit them, he felt the familiar shape of the American's compact pistol under the man's pant leg, still concealed in its holster strapped to his boot.

And casually, so as not to attract attention, Takashi looked over the interior of the van to see if anyone was watching, and then deftly removed the pistol from its holster and shoved it into the small of his back, covering the butt of the pistol with the tail end of his shirt.

* * *

"Saeko-chan, stay next to me and keep talking to him!" Shizuka ordered as she held the American's head steady as Saeko climbed over everyone and then knelt down next to Shizuka, holding one of the man's hands as she continued talking to him.

"Arisu-chan," Shizuka said looking over at the still frightened child who was now sitting in Rei's lap and was being held securely in her comforting arms.

"Stay there with Rei-chan, all right?" Shizuka said sweetly.

"Hai, oba-chan." Alice replied as she held on tightly to Rei's arm with one hand and held on to her squirming puppy with the other.

"Oba-chan, is Oji-chan going to die?" Alice said looking over at the blood stained towel on the man's head as everyone then looked up at Shizuka, waiting for her response.

"No, he'll be all right, don't you worry." Saya replied with a smile.

"We're taking him to a safe place, Arisu-chan." Shizuka replied. "So just stay there with Rei-oneechan and don't worry, okay?"

"Hai." Alice replied as she sat in Rei's arms, frightened by the noise from all the gunfire nearby and the sound of all of the loud anxious voices of all the people inside the close confines of the van, as they got ready to depart.

The sound of the driver's side door being quickly flung open startled everyone, as Kukugari quickly jumped into the driver's seat and shifted the van into gear, while Yuriko jumped into the front passenger seat and snapped on her seat belt.

As Matsudo and Kouta opened up the sliding door on the side of the van and jumped in, Yuriko then quickly glanced at her watch once more as she tapped on the dial of her watch in front of Kukugari's face and then ordered him to take off, as he nodded his head in acknowledgment and stepped on the accelerator.

And as he released the clutch, the van suddenly lurched forward; sending everyone in the rear of the van sliding back over the un-lined floor and causing the door that the American's body was lying on to also begin sliding from the sudden acceleration of the van.

* * *

"**TAKE IT EASY!"** Shizuka screamed as the American nearly slid off the door as the children tried to help her steady the man as the van then violently turned the corner and raced down the driveway.

"**He's doing the best he can under the circumstances, Sensei!"** Yuriko shouted as Shizuka glared at her and the driver.

"**All of you just need to hold onto your friend as best as you can, but we have to get out of here,.. FAST!"** Yuriko said as everyone quickly grabbed ahold of the unconscious man as the van came to a screeching halt, as the mechanic Matsudo opened the sliding door on the side of the van and jumped out running towards the Humvee.

"**Takashi! Grab that med-pack Shizuka-san needs and HURRY!** Yuriko shouted at the teenage boy as she glanced at her watch again and swore, as Takashi jumped out the open side door of the van and ran full speed towards the Humvee to retrieve the American's med-pack.

As Takashi ran towards the Humvee, Yuriko unfastened her seat belt and flung the passenger door open of the cargo van and jumped out, walking towards the front of the van and stopped in the middle of the road and looked down the street towards where her men were desperately holding the line.

And Yuriko gritted her teeth at the sight of Yoshioka and his men bravely putting up a stiff resistance, despite the fact that they were now being forced to fall back regardless, as the huge crowd of Infected steadily pressed in on them without letup.

And after just one look at the sheer numbers that were bearing down on the small group of men, Yuriko realized that it truly **was** a miracle that Yoshioka and his men hadn't been overwhelmed already.

But if they didn't retreat now, and **fast**, that would no longer be the case.

* * *

"**YOSHIOKA-SAN!** Yuriko screamed at the top of her voice trying and failing, to get the attention of the Security Chief over the roar of the gunfire.

"Damn it, he can't hear me!" Yuriko swore in frustration, as she removed her pistol from its holster and noticed Takahashi returning to the van with a small, tan-colored cordura pack under one arm.

And also carrying a shotgun slung over his shoulder, and a wooden bokken in his other hand.

"Sneaky little brat." Yuriko groused as she watched him jump into the van and slam the door shut.

"**KUKUGARI!** Yuriko shouted, turning her attention back to the men fighting desperately down the street. "AFTER I SHOOT, I WANT YOU TO HONK THE HORN THREE TIMES!"

"HAI!" Kukugari replied, as he stared astounded at the sight of his friends fighting so desperately against such overwhelming numbers.

Yuriko then raised her pistol high over her head and fired twice into the air as the Security Chief, in the act of reloading his rifle, snapped his head around at the sound of the shots coming from Yuriko's pistol, followed by the sound of three long blasts of the automobile horn coming from directly behind them.

And as he saw Yuriko waving at him as she stood in the middle of the street in front of the cargo van, Yoshioka breathed a deep sigh of relief at her arrival.

"Not a f_cking moment too soon." Yoshioka mumbled as he slapped another magazine into the magwell of his rifle home.

After waving back in response, Yoshioka then roared as loud as he could to his men over the roar of the gunfire.

"**EVERYONE!** He roared. **"BACK TO THE VANS! FALL BACK! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!**

Almost completely out of ammo and in **serious** danger of being overrun, Yoshioka's men needed no further encouragement as they all turned tail and ran as fast as they could back to the awaiting vehicles.

Yoshioka quickly raised his rifle to his shoulder and snapped off two more shots into the advancing horde and then quickly followed his men, running full speed towards the Humvee as he grabbed the door latch and flung the passenger door open and jumped inside, slamming the door shut and rolling down the window.

Yoshioka then stuck the barrel of his rifle out the now open window and continued maintaining a steady rate of fire at the approaching horde, covering his men as they piled into their vehicles, until all of his men were on board and the vehicles began racing down the road, tires squealing.

With its own tires kicking up dust and gravel, Yuriko's van lurched forward into the street and then turned sharply to follow the rest of the retreating vehicles as Matsudo and Yoshioka followed closely behind in the Humvee, bringing up the rear, as the enormous crowd of Infected swarmed over the exact spot they had just occupied minutes before, moving like the wave of a tsunami flooding the entire area, as the screams of victims still trapped in their homes echoed behind the retreating vehicles.

* * *

The small caravan roared down the empty city streets at full speed, the vehicles swinging violently from side to side, around street corners and past shuffling stragglers of Infected that had been traveling towards their previous location from the opposite direction, attracted by the noise of all the gunfire.

And while the small caravan had for the time being, safely escaped the clutches of the enormous horde of Infected that they had left far behind them, the drivers of each vehicle seemed to be unconvinced that they were safe and in the clear, as each vehicle flew down the narrow city streets just like the proverbial "bat out of hell."

Which was beginning to concern the passengers in the third van who were starting to get a little apprehensive at being tossed around within the close confines of their vehicle, for no apparent reason.

Especially one particularly pissed-off, pink-haired passenger.

* * *

"**DAMMIT! WHO TAUGHT YOU HOW TO DRIVE, AHOU?!"** Saya shrieked angrily as she was thrown against the side of the van onto her back, accidentally flashing Kouta as her legs kicked high in the air and her skirt flounced up as his eyes widened at the sight and his teenage hormones went into overdrive.

"**SAYA-CHAN! WATCH YOUR MOUTH, YOUNG LADY!"** Yuriko scolded as she looked over her shoulder and glared at her daughter as Saya and everyone were struggling to keep their balance in the wildly pitching van.

"**Andrew-san was the one who taught me!"** Kukugari answered nonchalantly, as he made another high speed swerve and then grinned broadly at hearing Saya shriek as she was tossed again, in the opposite direction onto her face, accidentally giving Kouta another sneak peek, this time at her blue-and-white striped rear.

"**Who?!"** Rei shouted as she and Alice slid across the floor of the van.

"**A former bodyguard of ours!"** Yuriko explained as she placed one hand on the dashboard and braced herself as they made another wild turn.

"**WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT, YOU PERV'!"** Saya shrieked at Kouta, her face beet-red with embarrassment, as she tried to pull down her skirt.

"**WHY IS HE DRIVING THIS FAST, ANYWAY?!"** Takashi yelled as he was slammed against the wall of the van by another particularly violent turn.

"Dammit, doesn't he use his brake at all?" Takashi wondered angrily as the van zoomed down a narrow alley without slowing.

"**They're" not running after us, and "They" sure as hell can't drive. What's the hurry?!"** Takashi yelled as the van swerved violently again.

"**We only have a small window in which to retrieve all of you before the JSDF makes another sweep of the entrance to the tunnels!"** Yuriko yelled and then smirked, as she watched Kouta trying to keep a handhold on the van and trying to help Saya at the same time as the van suddenly bounced after hitting something on the road, tossing Saya into his lap as she immediately began to blush.

"**If we keep shaking Jimu-san up like this, we could kill him!"** Shizuka shouted in frustration as she and the children tried to keep the man from sliding around the floor of the van.

"**If we don't get through the tunnel entrance on the other side in another twenty minutes before the JSDF resumes their patrol of the area, we'll be stuck on this side of the river with no way across and we'll all be dead!"** Yuriko snapped as the van violently lurched to the right to avoid an Infected man in the middle of the road.

"**What tunnels are you talking about?!"** Rei asked as she and Alice were slammed against the wall of the van after another violent lurch of the van threw everyone to the left.

"**The JSDF built a network of tunnels underneath each of the canals that separate all sections of the city for mass evacuation in case of a disaster or possible strategic use!"** Yuriko replied yelling over the roar of the engine and the squeal of the tires.

"**The tunnels were built a long time ago, during the Cold War, and have remained secret, for the most part!"** Yuriko explained as she glanced at her watch.

"**How did you come to know about them, then?!"** Takashi yelled as he tried to steady Rei.

"**My brother is a general with the JSDF!"** Yuriko replied as she looked into Takashi's face. **"He advised us last night of their existence and also delayed the security patrols long enough for us to slip through and gain access to the tunnels!"**

"**The only problem is,"** Yuriko added as she anxiously looked out the front windshield and breathed a sigh of relief as their intended destination loomed in sight. **"Is that he could only delay them for only so long before it would arouse suspicion!"**

"**So he delayed them so we could slip through, and then he informed us that once we were through, we only had a two hour window before they would resume their patrols!"** Yuriko said still speaking loudly but then lowering her voice as she rested her head against the headrest of the passenger seat, as the vehicle finally slowed and everyone then began tending to the multiple bumps and bruises they had sustained from the wild ride.

"And it was also imperative that we get out before the two hour deadline ended, because after today,…" Yuriko began, her voice sounding especially grim.

"After today, the JSDF is going to permanently seal the tunnels on this side of the river with explosives to try to contain the Contagion." Yuriko said with a heavy sigh.

"And anybody stuck on this side is dead." Yuriko said as everyone's jaw dropped at the realization of how close all of them had been to being left for dead by the authorities.

"Fortunately, we've just made it in time." Yuriko said breathing a sigh of relief as the small caravan headed towards the entrance of an underground parking garage located beneath an office building began to slow down as they drove down the ramp leading into the basement.

* * *

"So how's our patient?" Yuriko said turning her head and gazing at everyone in the rear of the van with a slight smile, as Shizuka glared at her in anger.

"**He's still breathing, no thanks to all of this slamming around!"** Shizuka said with a huff.

"Sensei, is he going to be all right?" Saeko asked looking at the unconscious man worriedly.

"I don't know Saeko-chan." Shizuka said as she started to take the man's pulse again.

"The scalp wound aside, if it's only a concussion, he might be awake very soon." Shizuka said frowning.

"If he has any bleeding in the brain cavity though, he might slip into a coma." Shizuka added as she reached for her penlight to check the man's pupils again.

"You mean he might take longer to regain consciousness?" Kouta asked.

"No, Kouta-chan, I mean he might not wake up at all." Shizuka said grimly as the children all looked at her apprehensively.

"Geez, is she always this blunt about her patients?" Yuriko thought sarcastically as she rolled her eyes in disgust.

* * *

"Saya-chan?" Shizuka said, looking over at Saya who was busy slapping Kouta's hands away from her as she tried to get off his lap. "Could you please come here and take over holding Jimu-san's head still, so I can give him an I.V.?"

"Eh?" Saya replied looking first over at the nurse and then the blood-soaked towel wrapped around the injured man's head and began to turn pale at the sight.

Takashi, noticing Saya's visible discomfort over Shizuka's request, and wishing to be helpful as well, raised his hand and offered to take her place instead.

"It's all right Takagi-san, I'll do it." Takashi volunteered, as he got up off the floor of the van and climbed over everyone to switch places with Shizuka .

"Put on some on gloves first, Komuro-chan before you touch him." Shizuka ordered as Takashi reached into the nurse's med-pack and donned a pair of rubber surgical gloves he found after rummaging through it, as Shizuka shifted herself slightly out of his way so that he could position himself behind the man's head as he finished putting on the gloves and moved over towards her.

"What do I do?" Takashi asked, trying not to look at the man's injuries too closely.

"Just hold his head still so it doesn't move." Shizuka replied as Takashi knelt behind the man's head and placed his hands on the blood-soaked towel covering his head, and trying not to gag at the smell of the blood, as Shizuka moved her hands off the man's head and removed her bloody gloves and slipped on a pair of clean ones.

"Don't squeeze his head, Komuro-san!" Shizuka warned as she noticed Takashi pressing too hard on the man's head. "Just hold his head still, and try not to put pressure on him."

"Hai." Takashi replied, wishing he had just kept his mouth shut and not volunteered after all.

Takashi was not at all squeamish at the sight of blood, the past three days of The Outbreak having proved that.

However, for some reason today, the sight and smell of blood coming from a friend was beginning to affect him now, and for the life of him, Takashi could not understand why as he tried to hold the American's head still and tried not to retch at the same time.

* * *

"Well, I guess I can start an I.V. now that we're not being tossed around anymore." Shizuka said tersely as she climbed over Takashi, and then knelt next to the unconscious man's side, directly across from Saeko as she unzipped the small med-pak that Takashi had retrieved from the Humvee.

Shizuka then opened up the American's med-pack and reached inside for an I.V. catheter and tubing, and set the I.V. administration set next to her on the floor of the van.

She then reached into the bag once more and pulled out a large opaque plastic bag and tore it open, revealing a smaller clear plastic bag inside of it that was filled with a clear fluid and stamped all over with large words and numbers on it.

She then removed the smaller bag from its wrapper and then stuck one end of the I.V. tubing she had pulled the cap off the end of, into a small port on the bottom of the bag and then squeezed the small chamber attached to the tubing, filling it half full of the clear fluid.

Shizuka then released a clamp attached to the I.V. tubing, allowing the bag to drain and forcing all the remaining air in the tubing to escape as the children observed in complete fascination, watching the air bubbles traveling all the way down the other end of the long length of clear tubing until all the air was cleared from the plastic tubing and the clear fluid from the bag began to flow out onto the floor until Shizuka clamped it off.

"What is that stuff?" Saya asked peering curiously at the bag of fluid Shizuka was holding up as Saya adjusted her glasses.

"An isotonic solution called normal saline." Shizuka replied as she handed Saya the bag holding it on its end as Saya looked back at Shizuka, with a confused expression on her face.

"Just hold the bag in the air for me until I have the catheter in place, Saya-chan." Shizuka said as she smiled at the look of unease on Saya's face as she took the end of the bag in her right hand and then lifted one end in the air, acting as if the bag were going to explode in her hand.

"It's just water and salt basically, Saya-chan." Shizuka laughed as Saya frowned at her, embarrassed at being so jumpy for no reason.

"If it's just water and salt, how is **this** supposed to help him, then?" Saya asked as she watched Shizuka place a tourniquet on one of the man's arms and then after finding a vein, started rubbing the spot with an alcohol swab.

"It's a little more complicated than that, but basically it helps him by replacing the fluid lost from his system." Shizuka started to explain.

"While it doesn't carry any oxygen carrying capabilities the same as blood does, it does aid in replacing fluid volume to help in the prevention, or reversal of hypovolemic shock due to significant fluid loss from major hemorrhage due to massive injuries suffered from extreme trauma." Shizuka added as everyone gawked at her, completely baffled by her words.

"Uhmmmmm,…. okay." Saya said, blinking her eyes.

* * *

Saeko-chan, would you hold this please?" Shizuka asked, handing Saeko the other end of the I.V. tubing as she uncapped the cover on the end of it.

"When I ask for it, just hand me it to me, okay?" Shizuka said as Saeko nodded her head.

"Yuriko-san? " Shizuka said, looking over at Yuriko as she was about to uncap the cover of a very large needle in her hand. "Can we stop for a moment so I can insert this catheter? I really can't do this with the vehicle bouncing around."

"I'm afraid not, Sensei." Yuriko replied as their van went over a speed bump as they traveled down the ramp leading towards the lower levels of the basement. "We're just barely going to make it as it is, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to do the best you can."

"But at least there won't be any more high speed turns or speed bumps from here on." Yuriko said shrugging her shoulders and smiling as she looked upon the scowling face of the frustrated nurse.

"Oh, very well." Shizuka sighed as she uncapped the needle and checked for "burrs" on the catheter surrounding the needle before she prepared to place the I.V. catheter into the man's arm.

Shizuka then took a deep breath to steady herself as she then stretched the skin of the man's arm over the injection site with one hand, and then placed the needle over the antecubital vein she had chosen to place the catheter into, as everyone including Yuriko leaned closer completely fixated on what she was doing, as Shizuka then pierced the skin of the man's arm with the needle and advanced it into the vein.

A flash of red suddenly filled the small chamber on the end of the catheter indicating a successful insertion, as Shizuka then slid the catheter over the needle and then pulled the needle out completely, while also applying pressure to the vein above the site to prevent blood from pouring out as Saeko then handed her the other end of the tubing.

Shizuka inserted the end of the tubing into the open end of the catheter and then taped everything down with a veni-guard securing everything just before the man suddenly jerked his arm.

"**WAAAAAAH!"** Shizuka screamed as the previously "unconscious" man suddenly jerked his arm away from her and then pulled his hand out of Saeko's and grabbed Saeko's arm, frightening her, as he then suddenly sat up as everyone screamed in surprise.

"**JIMU-SAN! IT'S JUST US!"** Saeko shouted, suddenly afraid that the American was about to start fighting everyone in the close confines of the van as everyone jumped back, obviously fearing the same thing.

Saeko gasped as the American's hand squeezed her arm in a vise-like grip as he slowly turned his towel-covered head and seemed to be staring at her even though his eyes were swollen shut.

Saeko stared in shock at the man's swollen face, mere inches from her own as, she heard everyone screaming in the background as the man's bloody lips parted as if he were trying to speak.

* * *

"Saeko-chan?" Saya asked as the children turned around and looked back towards Saeko.

"Saeko-chan, are you alright?" Saya asked again growing concerned as she looked upon the face of her friend in mild alarm as Saeko suddenly seemed to be staring into space as if in a trance.

"Mom?" Oyuki said worriedly as she looked into her mother's face and then placed her hand on her mother's arm as Saeko suddenly stiffened at her daughter's touch and gasped out loud as if in pain.

"**MAMA!"** Oyuki screamed as she watched horrified, as tears fell from her mother's eyes and ran down her face.

* * *

The American was in agony.

Saeko gasped as the American grabbed her arm and squeezed it so hard it actually began to hurt her as Saeko placed her hand on his and squeezed it, trying desperately to calm the seriously wounded man as she gazed helplessly upon him as he writhed on the ground in great pain, struggling desperately to breathe.

Saeko was kneeling next to him on his left side, trying to calm him, while Rika was kneeling on his other side holding his right hand as the man that had been friend, guardian, and **father, **to her and her friends for more than two weeks, sat upright on the ground being supported by the big JGSDF M60 machine gunner that had helped carry him away from the bridge, as the American struggled to breathe while the JGSDF medics worked feverishly to save his life.

His pack, combat vest and shirt had all been cut away by the medics as soon as the giant M60 machine gunner had dragged the wounded American from between the two JGSDF Type 10 tanks to the staging area were the other survivors had been detained earlier, after they had been patted down and relieved of any and all weapons.

Relieved at having survived their horrible ordeal and the furious firefight on the bridge, the survivors had all been comforting one another as they watched the JGSDF medics carry way Rei's wounded father on a litter to an awaiting military ambulance, and then drove away along with Rei and her mother Kikriko accompanying him, to be transported by medevac to the medical facilities set up by the JSDF at Tokonosu Airport.

And as they all awaited the arrival of Rika and Jim, they were shocked to hear Rika screaming for help as they saw their friends then coming towards them from between the two tanks, but not at all the way they had expected them to arrive.

* * *

"JIMU-SAN!" Everyone had screamed at the sight of the American being partially dragged/ partially carried by a very large JGSDF soldier from between the two tanks as they were shocked to see that the American was in visible distress, gasping for breath, with his face, chest, and combat vest splashed with blood as Rika ran next to the two men, visibly shaken by the American's serious injury.

"**WHAT HAPPENED?! **" Saeko shouted as she stared wide-eyed at the blood all over the wounded man as the JGSDF gunner dragged him over.

"**A SNIPER SHOT HIM AS HE WAS RUNNING!"** Rika yelled as slapped the hand of a soldier away as one of the soldiers tried to pull her away from the wounded man and escort her towards where the other survivors were being detained.

"**WHERE WAS HE HIT?!"** Shizuka shouted as she tried to run towards the wounded man but was pushed roughly back by the JGSDF soldiers.

"**IN HIS BACK SOMEWHERE, I DON'T KNOW!"** Rika cried as she looked at the man gasping for breath as Sgt. Kanuka Clancy forcefully pulled her away from him and then led her towards the others.

"ALL OF YOU NEED TO STAY HERE, SO OUR MEDICS CAN TREAT HIM!" Sgt, Kanuka Clancy said firmly as she held her hand up and tried to stop Saeko from running towards the wounded man.

Infuriated that the priority seemed to be more on restraining them than helping Jim, Saeko was about to grab the female sergeant's hand and break her arm, but the distraught look on Rika's face stopped her before she could, as the elite SAT sniper walked up to her and wrapped her arms around Saeko.

"**SAEKO-CHAN, I'M SORRY….."** Rika said as she finally broke down, as Saeko looked on in horror as the JGSDF soldiers continued to push everyone back, trying to prevent any of them from coming any closer.

Shizuka meanwhile, was still trying to push her way through the soldiers and assist the pair of female medics that were just now arriving, but was still being blocked by the soldiers who refused to let her near as she started to lose her patience.

"**LET ME PASS, I'M A NURSE! I CAN HELP THEM!"** Shizuka yelled as she tried to push past the soldiers still trying to keep her and the other civilians away so the medics could begin treating the wounded man unhindered by the panicked civilians.

"**WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!** Saya screamed angrily as she began trying to fight against two of the soldiers who were also trying to force her to stand back.

"**DO SOMETHING, DAMN YOU!"** Takashi roared as a soldier roughly shoved him back.

* * *

The sight of their friend so seriously injured and possibly dying, along with the rough way the soldiers were pushing everyone away in an effort to try to keep them from hampering the medic's attempts to treat the wounded man, was causing everyone's tempers to flare as the civilian's focus was on their friend's agony, and not at all on the fact that the soldiers were in reality, only trying to help the medics do their job.

And as a result, every one of the survivors began to angrily push back at the soldiers in an attempt to get closer to their friend, not realizing that they were ironically only making things worse as their struggling with the soldiers was also causing the seriously wounded man to struggle against the medics not just because of his injuries,….

But because he saw his friends being roughly treated, and their plight, was only increasing his anxiety.

As the situation continued to rapidly deteriorate, and was almost at the point of turning into a melee situation, the American Military exchange soldier Sgt. Kanuka Clancy, seeing that the situation was getting more and more out of hand, stepped up and ordered everyone to keep quiet so the medics could work on the man, as only a sergeant in the military can.

* * *

"**ALL OF YOU PEOPLE SHUT THE F_CK UP!** Kanuka roared as she glared angrily at everyone, as Rika noticed that despite her being attired in the uniform of a JGSDF soldier, the young woman wore the patch of an American flag on her shoulder.

"**She's American?"** Rika wondered to herself as the young sergeant continued to yell at everyone, trying to restore order.

"**LISTEN TO ME! YOU"RE NOT HELPING THIS MAN'S SITUATION BY SCREAMING LIKE A BUNCH OF F_CKING IDIOTS AND FIGHTING MY PEOPLE! SO CALM THE F_CK DOWN AND LET OUR PEOPLE DO THEIR F_CKING JOBS!"** The young sergeant shouted as the civilians finally settled down somewhat, but remained still very distraught, as the small group of survivors watched the JGSDF medics beginning to finally treat their wounded friend.

The condition of the wounded man had deteriorated so rapidly in the time that he had been dragged by the towering JGSDF soldier from the cement dividers all the way back to the staging area where the rest of the civilians were gathered, that the JGSDF medics hadn't even bothered with trying to manually remove the man's equipment and clothing to get at the gunshot wound in his back.

Instead, rather than removing his equipment and shirt by unfastening and pulling them off, the medics had opted to hastily cut away everything with their field knives as the wounded man again started struggling against them trying to sit upright as he gasped for breath, the look on his face stricken with pain as his respirations became more labored with each breath, with pink-colored phlegm starting to run from his mouth and nostrils each time he coughed, adding to everyone's anxiety as they watched him suffering.

Especially for Saeko, who could no longer stand watching idly nearby while her friend was suffering in agony, as she suddenly tried to tear herself away from Rika's grasp in a desperate attempt to slip past the soldiers and run towards the wounded man.

Sensing what the young girl was about to do, Rika increased her grip on Saeko, desperately trying to hold the teenage girl fast in her arms, to prevent her from being accidentally hurt by any of the soldiers who were still forcibly pushing everyone back as Jim's visible agony increased, despite the best efforts of the medics to treat him.

And as the medics struggled to provide medical care to the wounded man, they were also being hampered further in their efforts to help him by his unintentionally fighting against them, as he reflexively tried to position himself in a sitting position to aid his own breathing, as the medics were trying to hold him down so that they could treat his wound.

Finally after much effort and with the help of the giant M60 machine gunner holding the American still, one of the medic's finally managed to dress the open wound in the man's back as the other medic was attempting to treat the man's collapsed lung, as she popped the cap off a Chest Decompression Catheter and was about to jab it into the man's chest wall above the nipple line.

And just as she was about to insert the catheter into the man's chest and relieve the air pressure that was preventing natural expansion of the lung, the American suddenly intensified his struggles by kicking his legs violently as the lead medic in frustration, ordered the JGSDF soldier she called "Hiromi-chan" to hold the man still.

* * *

"**STOP IT!"** Saya screamed as Kouta held her in his arms. **"YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"**

"No, they're not." Shizuka said out loud, as she gazed helplessly at the soldiers efforts to help their friend.

"**Then why is he fighting them, then?!"** Takashi shouted nearly tempted to take a swing at the jaw of the young soldier who had just roughly pushed him back.

"**He can't help it!"** Saeko heard Shizuka reply as she started to cry in frustration.

"He's no longer thinking clearly, because his body is struggling to survive!" Shizuka said as Saeko's eyes widened in horror at the nurse's words, as she then increased her struggling against Rika's hold on her.

"**JIMU-SAN, PLEASE QUIT FIGHTING! LET THEM HELP YOU!"** Saeko screamed in desperation as the medic kept trying to insert the extremely large needle through the man's ribcage to relieve the tension pneumothorax that was impeding the man's ability to breath.

Comprehending that the only reason the man was struggling so desperately against the medics was really due to the agony he was experiencing, Rika then yelled loudly at the JGSDF sergeant wearing the American flag on her shoulder, hoping that somehow she could convince the American Army sergeant to allow her to help.

"**SERGEANT, PLEASE! HE CAN'T HELP HIMSELF!"** Rika screamed at Sgt. Kanuka Clancy as she whipped her head around at Rika's panicked shout. **"LET US HELP YOUR PEOPLE TRY TO CALM HIM DOWN!"**

Kanuka glanced over at the SAT sniper and then looked back toward the struggling American as the JGSDF soldiers struggled in vain to keep him still.

"**PLEASE SERGEANT, LET US HELP!"** Rika shouted once more.

* * *

Growing increasingly frustrated at his struggles and her failed attempts to insert the catheter, the lead medic didn't even bother waiting for Sgt. Clancy's OK, before she looked back over at Rika and then waved her over.

No longer being restrained by the soldiers, Rika then grabbed Saeko by the hand and ran over to the injured man and grabbed his hand, hoping that with their presence, they could calm the American down enough so that the medic could finally treat him.

But before the female medic could insert the catheter, the man suddenly gasped and opened his mouth as if struggling to take in a deep breath, but could not, as his ashen face suddenly turned red and his whole body seemed to spasm as his eyes opened wide.

"**JIMU! STOP STRUGGLING! LET US HELP YOU PLEASE!"** Rika screamed, her face wet with tears, as she tried to help hold Jim still as the JGSDF medic finally managed to insert the catheter into the man's chest between the second and third rib below the clavicle as air began to expel in a rush from the tube.

Rika and Saeko then breathed a sigh of relief as the man's struggles decreased as they then tried to help the JGSDF machine gunner prop up the wounded man who was still struggling to breathe, but was no longer fighting everyone as his breaths seemed to slow in rate but were as yet, still very labored.

And as Saeko and Rika looked with tear-filled eyes upon their friend, he then released his grip on Rika's hand and with a mighty effort tore himself from the M60 gunner's hands and sat up, grabbing his torn shirt and wiping his blood-covered face in the process.

* * *

"SIR, PLEASE! YOU NEED TO LIE STILL!" The young female medic shouted in protest, as the wounded American ignored her and then reached over and grabbed Rika, wrapping his arms around the SAT sniper in a crushing embrace, despite the end of the catheter still sticking out of his chest.

And in a raspy voice Saeko heard him whisper something in Rika's ear that caused burning tears to flow from her eyes as she returned his embrace, crying on his shoulder as he held her.

And then after a brief moment, he then tenderly kissed Rika on the cheek, pulling away from her as Rika watched him with tear-filled eyes as the wounded man then turned his attention towards Saeko.

And Saeko watched in horror as he turned his head to face her and looked at her with those same sad eyes that she had seen before in the time that she and her friends had all been traveling with the former firefighter turned mercenary.

And it was at that moment that Saeko realized what he had said that had upset Rika so much.

He was saying goodbye.

* * *

"**Jimu-san,…..no. Please don't!"** Saeko began wailing, as she slapped his hands away at first, trying to prevent him from what he was about to do, as she then started crying bitterly as the man gently reached over and wrapped his arms around her as he embraced her.

There wasn't a dry eye anywhere among the group of soldiers and their civilian detainees as everyone watched with sadness as the wounded man tried to comfort the weeping teenage girl in his arms as he brushed her hair with his hand and whispered gently into her ear, trying to console her as she sobbed uncontrollably on his shoulder.

"**Jimu-san please,… don't leave me!"** Saeko wailed sadly as the man hugged her even tighter and then kissed her affectionately on the cheek, trying even now despite his intense pain, to comfort the "daughter" he had come to love so much.

And then after a long, heart-breaking moment as he continued to hold her, Saeko then heard him say some words of comfort and encouragement to her friends standing around behind her, as Saeko continued to hold on to him tightly, afraid of what would happen if she ever let go.

But no matter how tightly she held on, there was nothing Saeko could have done that would have prevented what happened next.

And what happened would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Just as the American had barely finished speaking to her friends, Saeko suddenly heard a choking sound coming from him as she then felt his body suddenly tense.

And before she could release him to see what was wrong, Saeko then felt him squeeze her tightly as if he meant to squeeze the very breath out of her as everyone suddenly cried out in alarm behind her.

And she then felt Rika placing her hands upon her and Jim as she heard Rika screaming his name.

And then to Saeko's horror, she then heard the American give a long drawn out sigh as his body seemed to suddenly relax and his head sagged onto her shoulder.

And the pair of strong arms that had held her so tightly, …..

The same arms that had embraced her so many times before, and that had provided so much comfort to her through the hell of the past two weeks,…. relaxed their hold on her.

And Saeko Busujima let out a long, loud, heart-rending cry of anguish as she felt his arms slide off her body.

* * *

"MAMA!" Oyuki screamed again as she shook her mother, as Saeko blinked her eyes as she snapped out of her trance, and then realized where she really was as she quickly turned her head and looked over at the group of people sitting on the blanket next to her and realized with horror, that Saya and all of the children were staring at her in shock as her daughter Oyuki tightly gripped her arm, staring anxiously in Saeko's eyes, her face almost in tears.

***"Shimatta!"** Saeko silently swore to herself.

(*Shimatta – Japanese for "I messed up" or, as in this case, Saeko is saying "Oh Crap!")

* * *

Author's Notes:

Now, before anyone says anything as to Jim supposedly dying in this chapter and you are possibly tempted to start reasoning to yourselves,…..

"Well, that's that then, there's no need for me to follow along this story anymore".

Ya might wanna hold your horses for a minute.

Remember, I had mentioned before that there would be **two** endings.

But the scene where Jim is being treated by the medics, and then collapses into Saeko's arms is going to stay the same in both versions.

It's what happens after that, which is the point where both of the endings will change.

And you might wanna hang around and see what unfolds, because there's still a lot more to the story after the final battle.

I hesitated a **lot**, at writing out this scene of "Jim's" possible "death" in this chapter.

Most writers I suppose would want to only write just enough of the scene to keep a reader hooked and not give away too much.

In truth, I did the same, because there are two endings, and both of them do not end at the bridge either.

Although there was a lot more written out about "Jim's" scene on the bridge than I believe other writers would have written if it was their fanfic.

Being that I thought it was such a powerful scene, I threw caution to the wind and wrote out more than I probably should have.

One of the reasons that I wrote about Saeko's flashback of the events back at the bridge in this chapter, as well as the introduction of the children in these last two chapters was because I wanted to give you a glimpse of what's to come, and also to show you one of the reasons why Saeko and the rest of the teens were so reluctant to talk about their adventures during The Outbreak to their children, until now.

The actual bridge fight that you read about in Chapter's Two and Three and the small scene after Jim is shot seen here in this chapter will be written up in much greater detail during the final showdown of "Last Alarm."

This was just a small glimpse.

And as you can see, the fight at the bridge had a huge impact on everyone, especially Saeko, who is still deeply affected by what happened so many years ago.

**I had** wanted to leave you on a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of this chapter originally, and I went back and forth on it for a couple of days before I decided** not **to do that.

Originally, this chapter was supposed to have a much more dramatic ending.

But when I thought more about it, I realized that at this rate, it would take much longer for me to finish this part of the story, and I really wish to get to the events that take place at Takagi Manor and the Mall, as well as the Junior High School, so I decided to "tone down" the ending, although I did place the original ending at the end of the "Author's Notes" so you could see what I was originally thinking of doing.

But since I really didn't want to stall this story out with everyone overly stressing about Saeko's flashback, I toned it down a bit so I could move the story along without getting too bogged down.

On a side note to answer another reader's question about the last chapter, as far as what the conditions are like worldwide 16 years after The Outbreak, well, that will be revealed later.

These chapters are pretty long as it is at an average of 10-15,000 words at a time each chapter, and even though I try to put as much detail as I can into each one, it's hard to squeeze a lot of stuff in sometimes, and even then, I have noticed in the past that if too much detail is written into a story, the tendency is for a story like that to actually bore a reader, versus intrigue him.

Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I figured I'd never finish this story by adding too many details. And at the rate I'm going, it's already taking long enough to get through this story as it is anyway.

But despite that, I am still putting a lot of effort into this story to make it worth reading, and eventually I will get around to working out the details of how the world was affected by The Outbreak, and the nuclear strikes, EMP and so forth.

Although I wouldn't expect anything on the same level as Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler.

I love military history and tactics and equipment, but how a naval fleet would be deployed to combat another enemy fleet or the procedures used to launch a nuclear strike from a boomer and so forth, is beyond me and really not something I want to get too heavily involved in for this simple little fanfic I'm doing anyway.

So for now, the focus is on Jim, the HOTD cast and their children.

Keep in mind though, this** is** a fanfic, and while it is** loosely** based on the manga and the anime, as many of you have already noticed by now, just by reading through it, that it's not quite the same as the original series at all.

Especially from this point on.

We are definitely in uncharted waters here now, mate.

Out here be monsters, and while I intend to more or less write in the spirit of the series, this fanfic has taken a life of its own, and I won't be following the original series too closely at all.

As the story goes on, believe me, all things will be revealed in time.

Just hang in there, and try to enjoy the ride.

Because it's **really** gonna get bumpy from here on.

And as always, for those of you who have kindly sent a review each chapter, thank you.

I always look forward to hearing from you, and it really makes writing this story that much more fun and enjoyable for me to keep on writing knowing that all of you are really enjoying reading it.

Thanks! Jim

* * *

Last Alarm

Chapter 27

Part Four

Original Ending

* * *

And then to Saeko's horror, she then heard him give a long drawn out sigh as his body seemed to suddenly relax and his head sagged onto her shoulder.

And the pair of strong arms that had held her so tightly, and that had embraced her so many times before, and had provided so much comfort to her through the hell of the past two weeks,…. relaxed their hold on her.

And Saeko Busujima let out a long, loud, heart-rending wail of sorrow as she felt his arms slide off her body.

"**HOW LONG HAS SHE BEEN LIKE THIS?!"** Shizuka shouted.

"**I DON'T KNOW!** Saya yelled, visibly shaken. **"AT LEAST 10 MINUTES BEFORE ALL OF YOU GOT HERE!"**

"**SAEKO! SAEKO-CHAN! PLEASE,….SNAP OUT OF IT!"** Shizuka shouted as she shook Saeko vigorously, trying to snap her out of her trance as Takashi, Rei, Saya, and Alice tried to comfort the hysterical children watching nearby.

"**MAMA! PLEASE,…. SAY SOMETHING!"** Oyuki screamed as she tried to run back to her mother, but was prevented from doing so as Takashi held her fast, trying to keep her out of the way so Shizuka could try to find out what was wrong with her mother.

"**OJI-CHAN! PLEASE, LET ME GO!"** The hysterical girl screamed as she struggled against Takashi's iron grip before finally collapsing into his arms in tears as everyone gathered around.

"**MAMAAAAAAAAAA!"** Oyuki screamed as Takashi held her tightly in his arms, as the young girl wailed hysterically on his shoulder, while everyone watched panic-stricken at the sight of Saeko staring vacantly ahead with tear-filled eyes, her lips parted in a silent scream that no one but Saeko could hear.


End file.
